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| Conradin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| King of Jerusalem | |
| Reign | 21 May 1254 – 29 October 1268 |
| Predecessor | Conrad II |
| Successor | Hugh I |
| King of Sicily | |
| Reign | 21 May 1254 – 1258 |
| Predecessor | Conrad I |
| Successor | Manfred of Sicily |
| Duke of Swabia | |
| Reign | 21 May 1254 – 29 October 1268 |
| Predecessor | Conrad III |
| Successor | Rudolph II of Austria (titular) |
| Born | 25 March 1252 Wolfstein Castle nearLandshut,Bavaria,Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 29 October 1268(1268-10-29) (aged 16) Naples,Kingdom of Sicily |
| Burial | |
| House | Hohenstaufen |
| Father | Conrad IV of Germany |
| Mother | Elisabeth of Bavaria |
Conrad III (25 March 1252 – 29 October 1268), calledthe Younger orthe Boy, but usually known by the diminutiveConradin (German:Konradin,Italian:Corradino), was the last direct heir of theHouse of Hohenstaufen. He wasDuke of Swabia (1254–1268) and nominalKing of Jerusalem (1254–1268) andSicily (1254–1258). Afterhis attempt to reclaim the Kingdom of Sicily for the Hohenstaufen dynasty failed, he was captured and beheaded.
Conradin was born inWolfstein, Bavaria, toConrad IV of Germany andElisabeth of Bavaria. Though he never succeeded his father asRoman-German king, he was recognized as king of Sicily and Jerusalem by supporters of theHohenstaufens in 1254.
Having lost his father in 1254, he grew up at the court of his uncle and guardian,Louis II, Duke of Bavaria.[1] His guardians were able to holdSwabia for him. Jerusalem was held by a relative from the royal house ofCyprus as regent. InSicily, his father's half-brotherManfred continued as regent, but began to develop plans tousurp the kingship.
Little is known of his appearance and character except that he was as "beautiful asAbsalom, and spoke goodLatin".[1] Although his father had entrusted him to the guardianship of the church,Pope Alexander IV forbade Conradin's election asRoman-German king and offered the Hohenstaufen lands in Germany to KingAlfonso X of Castile andRichard of Cornwall.[1][2][3]
Having assumed the title ofKing of Jerusalem andSicily, Conradin took possession of theDuchy of Swabia in 1262, and remained for some time in his duchy.[1] Conradin's first invitation toItaly came from theGuelphs ofFlorence: they asked him to take arms against Manfred, who had been crownedking of Sicily in 1258 on a false rumor of Conradin's death. Louis refused this invitation on his nephew's behalf. In 1266 countCharles I of Anjou, called by the new popeClement IV, defeated and killed Manfred atBenevento, taking possession of southern Italy: envoys from theGhibelline cities went then to Bavaria and urged Conradin to come and free Italy. Count Guido de Montefeltro representingHenry of Castile, Senator of Rome, offered him the support of the eternal city. Pledging his lands, Conradin crossed theAlps and issued a manifesto atVerona setting forth his claim on Sicily.[1]
Notwithstanding the defection of his uncle Louis and of other companions who returned to Germany, the threats ofClement IV, and a lack of funds, his cause seemed to prosper.[1] Proclaiming him King of Sicily, his partisans, among them Prince Henry of Castile, both in the north and south of Italy took up arms. Rome received his envoy with enthusiasm; and the young king himself received welcomes atPavia,Pisa andSiena. In September 1267 a Spanish fleet underFrederick of Castile, and a number of knights from Pisa, and Spanish knights soldiering from Tunis, disembarked in the Sicilian city ofSciacca, and most of the island rebelled against theAngevin rule. OnlyPalermo andMessina remained loyal to Charles. The revolt spread toCalabria andApulia. In November of the same year the Popeexcommunicated him. His fleet won a victory over that ofCharles I of Anjou, and in July 1268, Conradin himself entered Rome to a great and popular reception.
Having strengthened his forces, he marched towardsLucera to join theSiculo Muslims[1] troops settled there since the time of his grandfather. On 23 August 1268 his multinational army of Italian, Spanish, Roman,Siculos and German troops encountered that of Charles atTagliacozzo, in a hilly area of central Italy. The eagerness of Conradin's forces, notably that of the Spanish knights led by Infante Henry of Castile who mounted a triumphant charge and captured the Angevin banner, initially appeared to have secured victory. But their inability to see through Charles'ruse allowed the latter to ultimately emerge victorious once the elite of his army, the veteran French knights he had hidden behind a hill, entered the battle to the surprise of the enemy. Escaping from the field of battle, Conradin reached Rome, but acting on advice to leave the city he proceeded toAstura in an attempt to sail forSicily. However, upon reaching his destination he was arrested and handed over to Charles, who imprisoned him in theCastel dell'Ovo inNaples, together with the inseparableFrederick of Baden. On 29 October 1268 Conradin and Frederick were beheaded.[4][2][3]
With Conradin's death at 16, the direct (male) line of theHohenstaufen dynasty became extinct.[a][5] His remains, with those of Frederick of Baden, lie in the church of the monastery ofOur Lady of Mt. Carmel atNaples, founded by his mother for the good of his soul; and here in 1847Maximilian, crown prince of Bavaria, erected a marble statue byBertel Thorvaldsen to his memory. In the 14th-centuryCodex Manesse, a collection ofmedieval German lyrics, preserved atHeidelberg, there appear two songs written by Conradin, and his fate has formed the subject of several dramas.[1]
His hereditary Kingdom of Jerusalem passed to the heirs of his great-great-grandmotherIsabella I of Jerusalem, among whom a succession dispute arose. The senior heir in primogeniture wasHugh of Brienne, a second cousin of Conradin's father, but another second cousinHugh III of Cyprus already held the office of regent and managed to keep the kingdom as Hugh I of Jerusalem. Conradin's grandmother's first cousinMary of Antioch also staked her claim on basis ofproximity of blood, which she later sold to Conradin's executionerCharles of Anjou.
According to a strict sense of legitimacy,[b] the general heiress of his Kingdom of Sicily and the Duchy of Swabia was his auntMargaret, half-sister of his father Conrad IV (the youngest but only surviving child of Frederick II and his third wife, Isabella of England) and married withAlbert, Landgrave of Thuringia since 1255. Their sonFrederick claimed Sicily and Swabia on her right.
However, these claims met with little favor. Swabia, pawned by Conradin before his last expedition, was disintegrating as a territorial unit. He went unrecognized in Outremer, and Charles of Anjou was deeply entrenched in power in Southern Italy. Margrave Frederick proposed an invasion of Italy in 1269, and attracted some support from the Lombard Ghibellines, but his plans were never carried out, and he played no further part in Italian affairs.
Finally, Sicily passed to Charles of Anjou, but theSicilian Vespers in 1282 resulted in dual claims on the Kingdom; the Aragonese heirs of Manfred retaining the island ofSicily and theAngevin party retaining the southern part ofItaly, popularly called theKingdom of Naples.[2][3]
Conradin was the subject of artistic interpretation in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Several paintings and works of literature, especially poetry, depicted his military campaign and his execution.Felicia Hemans, best known for "The boy stood on the burning deck", wrote in 1824 "The Death of Conradin".Charles Swain wrote "Conradin" in 1832, a poem which inspired the first of "Three Tone Poems for Solo Piano" by Justin Henry Rubin.[6]Conradin : a philosophical ballad was written byC. R. Ashbee, dedicated to his patron and friendColonel Shaw Hellier, and published in 1908 by Essex House Press, "one of the most significant private presses at work during theArts and Crafts movement"[7]
The novelPõlev lipp (The Burning Banner) byKarl Ristikivi (1961; inEstonian) depicts Conradin's Italian campaign. A translation into the French byJean Pascal Ollivry[1], entitledL'étendard en flammes, was published in Paris in 2005.[8]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Conradin".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 968–969.{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | King of Sicily 1254–1258 withManfred | Succeeded by |
| King of Jerusalem 1254–1268 | Succeeded by | |
| Duke of Swabia 1254–1268 | Duchy disintegrated | |
Monarchs of theKingdom of Jerusalem | ||
|---|---|---|
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