On the death of this zealous defender of the faith of the plague near Tunis, Charles assumed the command ; but no sooner had he defeated the Bey of Tunis, and compelled him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the crown of Sicily, than he returned home ; and his example was followed by the other crusaders, except Edward of England, who alone proceeded to the Holy Land.
The cardinals at length elected Tebaldo Visconti, then in Palestine, who, on his return, assumed the name of Gregory X. His first attempt was to reconcile the Guelph and Ghibeline states. For which purpose he travelled into Tuscany ; and at Florence, Pisa, and Sienna, was success ful in recalling the Ghibeline exiles. But the king of Naples, who considered this pacification as not at all con ducive to his interest, contrived, in a very short time, to force them again to emigrate. The pope, fully aware of his ambitious designs, attempted to give a head to the em pire, who might serve as a check to him ; and having per suaded the other competitors to withdraw their claims, Ro dolph of Hapsburg was elected king of the Romans. He next succeeCed in reconciling to the Western church the Grecian emperor, Michael Paleologus ; and still retaining that zeal against the infidels, which had carried him in his youth to Palestine, was preparing to lead another army of crusaders to that country, when his plans were interrupted by death. The reigns of his three immediate successors, Innocent V., Adrian V., and John XX I.,together only lasted one year; but Nicholas III. the next elected pontiff; exert ed all his great personal talents, and the interest of his fa mily, (the Orsini at Rome,) to carry into effect the schemes of Gregory X. Having conciliated the friendship of the German monarch, he contrived completely to shake off the yoke of Charles of Anjou ; and had afterwards the honour of acting as mediator between these two princes. The lat ter was obliged to give up the office of senator of Rome, and head of the Tuscan League ; and the former granted the long denied charter, which entirely separated the terri tories of the See of Rome from the domains of the empire. Having appointed his brother, Bcrtoldo Orsino. eetr.t cf Romagna, he nominated seven new cardinals of his family and connections, and thus secured a majority in the sacred college. His last act was to bring about, by means of his legate cardinal Latino, a peace at Bologna, between the Gicrimei and Lambertazzi, two powerful families, whose dissensioos had involved their fellow citizens in war ; and at Florence, between the Guelphs and Ghibelines. These
transactions were soon followed by the death of Nicholas, whose reign had been thus useful to the church, and ad vantageous to his own family.
An impoltant revolution had in the mean time taken place at Milan. The archbishop, Otho Visconti, with the nobles, after a long warfare, defeated and took prisoner Na poleon della Torre ; and the Milanese, having expelled the remaining branches of the family, conferred the sovereign ty on Visconti ; who thus became the founder of a dynasty of princes, whose sway, at an after period, extended over all Lombardy.
On the death of the late pope, the cardinals, influenced by the threats and violence of the king of Naples, elected as his successor Martin IV. ; who, entirely devoted to the interest of Charles, deprived the Orsini family of the go vernment of Romagna, filled Italy with its exiles, and the Neapolitan treasury from the confiscation of their proper ty. The pontiff also, to second Charles' designs against the Grecian emperor, excommunicated him for relapsing into heresy, and dignified with the title of a crusade the ex pedition against Constantinople, for which Charles was making preparations. But it was destined that a check should now be given to the ambition of the king of Naples, and a bloody sacrifice affixed to the shades of Manfred and Conradin. John de Procida, a nobleman of Salerno, the physician and friend of Frederic II. and Manfred, had, on the death of Conradin, taken refuge at the court of Peter and Constance of Arragon, and was by them honourably recom pensed for his attachment to the house of Suabia. But his ardent spirit could not enjoy repose, while his country was enslaved by the murderer of her princes. Having, there fore, excited Constance and Peter to undertake the defence of the oppressed Sicilians, whom he visited, and whose spirit he kept alive, he proceeded to Constantinople, where he obtained pecuniary assistance from the emperor, and to Rome, where he received a promise of aid from Nicholas Ill. The death of that pope seemed at first to impede his designs; but his successor having insulted the Arragonian ambassadors. Peter at length made serious preparations for invading Sicily, concealing, however, his intentions, by an expedition to the coast of Africa. Procida in the meantime repaired to Sicily, to await a favourable opportunity for in surrection.