Kingdom of Sicily under the regency

Who rules

Name

Frederick (Frederick Roger; the future Emperor Frederick II)

Title

King of Sicily, duke of Apulia and prince of Capua (rex Sicilie, ducatus Apulie et principatus Capue)

Since

17 May 1198, crowned in Palermo cathedral; sole ruler under papal wardship since his mother's death on 27 November 1198

Born

26 December 1194 at Jesi in the March of Ancona; five years old (his fifth birthday was six days ago)

Family

Hohenstaufen and Hauteville: son of Emperor Henry VI (died at Messina, 28 September 1197) and Constance of Hauteville, daughter of King Roger II

Confidence

high

Coronation date from de.wikipedia (17 May 1198); birth, Constance's death and the wardship from it.wikipedia and the Enciclopedia Federiciana. Where he is that morning: the Federiciana (Messina) says that after his mother's death the boy king took refuge with the regency council at Messina, which Markward attacked in vain, that he confirmed the Messinese their trading privileges in December 1199 in thanks for their loyalty, and that he left Messina in 1200. On that evidence he is most likely at Messina on 1 January 1200 (confidence medium).

Overlord

The pope. Sicily is a papal fief: Innocent III is the king's feudal overlord and, by Constance's will (November 1198), his guardian (balium) and the regent of the kingdom.

What the realm holds

• The king's person (with the council at Messina that winter) and the royal palace at Palermo (the New Palace with the Cappella Palatina, the treasury tower called the Torre Pisana, the Greek Tower) and the Castellammare (the sea castle, the Old Palace) on the harbour
• Palermo and its plain (the Conca d'Oro) with the royal parks and pleasure houses: the Favara (Maredolce), the Zisa, the Cuba, the Parco (Altofonte), and the tuna fisheries of San Giorgio and Solanto
• Monreale, whose archbishop sits on the council (his mountain estates are another matter: see Sicilian Muslims)
• The north coast: Termini, Cefalu (the bishop's town), Patti and the Aeolian islands (the bishop of Lipari-Patti's), Milazzo
• Messina with its arsenal, mint and royal palace, and the Strait
• The east and south-east: Taormina, Catania (the bishop's city), Lentini, Syracuse, Noto, Ragusa
• The interior: the royal fortress of Castrogiovanni, and the Lombard towns (Piazza, Aidone, Nicosia, Randazzo, Capizzi, San Fratello, Novara)
• The south coast: Agrigento, Licata, Sciacca (side that winter not pinned for any of them)
• On the mainland: whatever the regency's justiciars, loyal prelates and loyal counts hold (see the cam, apu, cal and abr records; not researched here)

How it was acquired

Frederick inherited the kingdom through his mother Constance, Roger II's daughter, after Henry VI conquered it from Tancred's heirs in 1194 (crowned at Palermo, Christmas 1194). Henry VI died at Messina on 28 September 1197; Constance ruled for her son, expelled Markward and the Germans, gave up the old royal rights over the Sicilian church in return for papal recognition, had Frederick crowned on 17 May 1198 and dropped his German royal title, and on her deathbed (27 November 1198) put him and the kingdom under Innocent III.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the pope (guardian and overlord; his marshal James, his cousin, will bring hired troops in summer 1200); the Church of the kingdom's loyal prelates; the city of Palermo; the counts loyal to the chancellor on the mainland (Peter of Celano). Rivals and enemies: Markward of Annweiler and his party; the Muslims of the western mountains (his allies); William Grasso, count of Malta (his ally that winter); the German captains of the mainland (Diepold of Acerra, Conrad of Marlenheim and others: see the diepold realm record); Philip of Swabia's court, which backs Markward as imperial regent. Rivals inside the regency: the pope against the chancellor over Palermo and later over Walter of Brienne (the break comes in the second half of 1200, and Markward joins the council in November 1200).

Pisa and Genoa compete for the kingdom's trade and ports and will back whichever side pays.

The realm that morning

That morning the boy king is most likely at Messina with the regency council (Federiciana, Messina: he confirmed the Messinese privileges there in December 1199 and left the city during 1200), and Palermo, the palace and the treasury are held for him. The regency holds Palermo, Monreale, the north coast and the east of the island; Markward, who landed at Trapani in October 1199 and has attacked Messina without success, holds Trapani and is fighting in the west with the Muslims of the mountains, who have revived their revolt on the Monreale estates since Constance's death; the ground between Trapani and Palermo (Alcamo, Partinico, Calatafimi, Salemi, Marsala, Mazara) is in dispute, and the south coast's side is not pinned. Archbishop Bartholomew of Palermo is dead (late 1199) and the see is empty.

On the mainland the regency's authority rests on the loyal prelates (the archbishops of Capua and Reggio sit on its council), the loyal counts and the towns that will obey its justiciars, and is defied by Diepold and the German captains; town by town and count by count, see the cam, apu, cal and abr records. Across the sea, Ifriqiya (Tunis, Mahdia) lies beyond this sheet. The papal crusade against Markward has been proclaimed (from November 1199) but no papal army has yet reached the island.

Wealth

Grain above all: the wheat of the Val di Noto, the plain of Catania and the interior, shipped from Palermo, Messina, Catania, Agrigento, Licata, Syracuse and Trapani. Tuna fisheries (tonnare) at Palermo (San Giorgio, Solanto) and round Trapani; salt pans at Trapani; cheese, wool and hides out of Palermo (Federiciana); silk woven in the royal workshop (the tiraz) of the Palermo palace; cotton and sugar cane grown by Muslim farmers in the west (not pinned for 1200). Port dues and customs at every port; the royal monopolies and the poll tax paid by Muslims and Jews; the rents of the royal demesne, which covers most of the island.

The royal treasure is diminished: Henry VI carried the Norman treasure north to the Trifels in 1195, and in April 1202 the pope will accuse the chancellor of squandering what was left (Dizionario Biografico).

Military

Royal castles: the palace and Castellammare at Palermo; Castrogiovanni (Enna), the great fortress of the interior, besieged by Henry VI in 1197; the castles of Messina (the royal palace and the Mategriffon tower Richard I built in 1190-1191), Milazzo, Taormina, Termini, Lentini, Syracuse and Noto, held by royal castellans whose names that winter are not pinned.

Threats

• Markward's siege of Palermo in spring 1200, with Muslim allies, before any papal army can arrive
• Defection of barons and towns to Markward, who pays and promises
• The chancellor's own ambitions: his bid for the see of Palermo and his later deal with Markward
• The German captains on the mainland and a possible junction of Diepold with Markward
• Philip of Swabia's support for Markward as imperial regent
• Corsairs of Genoa and Pisa in the kingdom's waters; William Grasso's ships at Markward's service
• Tancred's heirs and Walter of Brienne, whom the pope may use and the chancellor fears

Guardian and council

Guardian: Pope Innocent III, by Constance's testament, made in the palace at Palermo on 25 November 1198, which also told her subjects to swear fidelity to the pope. Day-to-day government lies with the king's household council (the familiares, familiares regis). The testament named the chancellor Walter of Palear (Gualtiero di Pagliara), bishop of Troia, and the archbishops of Palermo, Monreale and Capua (Huillard-Breholles' note on the testament); Innocent III's letter of 1199 to the familiares is addressed to the archbishops of Palermo, Reggio, Capua and Monreale and the bishop of Troia, five in all, and the Federiciana speaks of a college of five.

Walter has dominated it since Constance's death (Dizionario Biografico). Who actually sits that winter: Walter of Palear, chancellor; Caro (Carus), archbishop of Monreale (from before 1194 to after 1222), who is also fighting to hold his estates against the Muslim rising; the archbishop of Reggio (name not pinned here; see the cal records); the see of Palermo is empty, because Archbishop Bartholomew (formerly bishop of Agrigento, 1171-1191) died late in 1199 (Dizionario Biografico and Federiciana; the it.wikipedia list gives April 1192 to 1199); Archbishop Matthew of Capua died in summer 1199 and Rainald of Celano has held Capua since about October 1199, but whether he has taken Matthew's seat is not pinned. Roger Orbus, bishop of Catania, sits as a familiaris from 1200 until his death (Federiciana, Catania): whether already on 1 January is not pinned.

Where the council sits: after Constance's death the boy king and the regency council took refuge at Messina (Federiciana, Messina), while Palermo was held for them; how much of the council is with the king that morning is not pinned.

Officers and household

Chancellor (cancellarius): Walter of Palear, bishop of Troia (chancellor since March 1195 under Henry VI, removed and held in custody by Constance after 28 September 1197, freed at Innocent III's request and restored). Command in Palermo while the king is at Messina: the chancellor's brother Gentile of Palear, count of Manoppello in the Abruzzi, who defends the city when Markward besieges it in spring 1200 and later holds the young king (Dizionario Biografico; Enciclopedia Federiciana); whether he is already in Palermo on 1 January is not pinned. Admiral (ammiratus): William Grasso, the Genoese corsair who holds the title of count of Malta, traditionally joined to the admiralty; he has gone over to Markward (see Count of Malta), so the regency has no admiral of its own that winter.

Papal legates: Cardinal Cinzio of S. Lorenzo in Lucina is the legate in Sicily by March 1200 (he lets Walter take possession of Palermo then, and is disavowed by the pope); the Federiciana also names Cardinal Gregory of S. Maria in Portico among the legates of the regency without dates; who is at Palermo as legate on 1 January is not pinned. The king's first teacher was Guglielmo Francesco (it.wikipedia), dates of service before 1206 not pinned.

The great financial offices of the Norman kingdom (the royal fiscal bureau, the diwan or duana, in the palace) survive, but their officers that winter are not pinned.

Heirs and kin

No consort and no children; no betrothal in force is pinned for 1 January 1200 (the marriage to Constance of Aragon is arranged only in 1208). Heir: none in the kingdom. Nearest kin: his paternal uncle Philip of Swabia, king of the Romans, whose party named Markward imperial regent of the kingdom (procurator regni Siciliae) in late May 1199. The surviving heirs of King Tancred (his widow Sibylla and their daughters, among them Elvira (Albiria)) are in exile in France and look to Rome for their claims: Elvira's marriage to Walter of Brienne and his claim to Lecce and Taranto are dated by the usual accounts to 1200-1201 (not checked here; see the likely course and the Apulia records).

Great vassals

On the island the Norman counties are few and the record around 1200 is thin. County of Geraci in the Madonie: Countess Guerrera, documented 1195-1196, holder on 1 January not pinned (Geraci). County of Malta with Gozo: William Grasso, with Markward that winter (Count of Malta). Modica: not yet a county; Henry VI took the lordship from Walter (Gualtiero) of Modica in 1194 and its holder in 1200 is not pinned (Modica).

Caltabellotta: the castle where Sibylla and the boy King William III took refuge in 1194; no lord is pinned for 1200, and the county there is created only in 1338. The old Aleramici counties of Paternò and Butera (the kin of Countess Adelaide who brought the Lombards) and the county of Collesano: holders around 1200 not pinned. The Church holds great lordships that the map shows separately: the archbishop of Monreale (the town and the great mountain estate of Iato, Corleone and Calatrasi, granted by William II), the bishop of Catania (lord of the city since Count Roger's grant), the bishops of Cefalu and of Lipari-Patti (lords of their towns and islands), the archbishop of Messina and the Greek archimandrite of San Salvatore at Messina.

On the mainland the greatest lords loyal to the regency include Count Peter of Celano, the chancellor's brother-in-law; against it stand Diepold of Schweinspeunt, count of Acerra, Conrad of Marlenheim at Sora and Rocca d'Arce and the other German captains (see the cam, abr, apu and cal records). Many of the island's lords have built new castles without royal leave since 1189 (the 1220 assizes of Capua order all such works razed), a sign of how far the baronage has slipped free; their names around 1200 are mostly not documented.

Ports mints tolls

Ports: Palermo, Messina (with the arsenal), Catania, Syracuse, Agrigento, Licata, Mazara, Marsala, Trapani, Termini, Cefalu, Milazzo. Mints: Palermo and Messina strike the gold tari and the copper follaro (the silver ducalis of Roger II also circulates); the right of coinage is the king's. Tolls and dues: the customs of the ports (wine and oil taxed at Palermo's port: Federiciana), the market dues, the tuna and salt rights.

The September 1200 privilege to Palermo is later (likely course).

Treaties

The concordat of 1198 with Innocent III: Constance gave up the old royal claim to act as the pope's legate in Sicily and the king's rights over church councils, legates, appeals and elections, keeping only the right to approve a bishop-elect before he took his see; in return the pope recognised and invested her son. The kingdom owes Rome a yearly census as a papal fief. Henry VI's promise to Genoa of Syracuse and of knights' fiefs in the Val di Noto (1191) was never kept and still rankles.

No treaty with Markward exists: the pope refused his offers in 1199 and he is excommunicated.

Wars and feuds

1) Markward's war in Sicily, since his landing at Trapani in October 1199, with the Muslims of the western mountains as his allies (confidence high that the war is open; its winter front is not pinned). 2) The papal crusade against Markward, proclaimed from November 1199 (high). 3) The war of the German captains on the mainland (Diepold of Acerra, Conrad of Marlenheim and others) against the regency and the pope's men round Montecassino, the Terra di Lavoro and Apulia (high; details in the cam and diepold records).

4) The Genoese-Pisan rivalry in the kingdom's ports: both backed the Staufen but each fought for its own advantage; the Genoese have regained the lead at Syracuse since 1197, while Pisa, with Markward's backing, will later make Syracuse its base against Genoa (Federiciana, Sicilia) (medium). 5) Everywhere since William II's death (1189) lords have built castles and walls without royal leave on lands outside royal control; Frederick's assizes of Capua (1220) will order them razed (high, as a general condition). No truce is known to be in force on the island.

Side

The regency is the pope's side, and Rome treats Markward as the enemy of God, the Church and the kingdom. In the German throne quarrel the regency is formally neutral; Markward is Philip of Swabia's man.

Coinage

Gold tari (the quarter-dinar of Muslim origin, struck at Palermo and Messina), copper follari, silver coins of the Norman kings; foreign gold of Ifriqiya and Egypt circulates in the ports.

Host and fleet

The host: the regency has the city militia of Palermo, the palace guard, the knights' service of loyal barons and the Lombard towns of the interior (in 1168 the Lombard towns sent a great force to the court's aid, as Falcandus reports), and hired men. It has no field army able to meet Markward until the pope's marshal James brings hired troops in summer 1200. The fleet: the Norman navy built at Messina and Palermo still exists in part, but its admiral, William Grasso, a Genoese who has held the admiralty since at least 1197 (Federiciana, Sicilia), has taken his ships over to Markward; the regency depends on whatever galleys Messina and Palermo can man and on hired Pisan or Genoese ships.

No numbers are given in the sources read.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. During 1200 (date not given)The king leaves Messina (Federiciana); Roger Orbus, bishop of Catania, joins the familiares (from 1200, Federiciana); the Genoese receive from the king a large building at Messina for their consulate (1200).Depends on: The court's movements and the regency's need of the Genoese. Stopped by: Markward taking Messina.
2. Early 1200The Palermo chapter elects the chancellor Walter of Palear archbishop of Palermo.Depends on: The see being vacant (Bartholomew died late in 1199) and the chancellor's control of the chapter. Stopped by: A rival candidate backed by the legate or the pope.
3. March 1200The legate in Sicily, Cardinal Cinzio of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, lets Walter take possession of Palermo; Innocent III disavows the legate (a translation between sees was beyond his powers) and allows Walter only to administer the church of Palermo while staying bishop of Troia; from May 1200 he styles himself bishop of Troia, minister of the church of Palermo and chancellor.Depends on: The legate being in Sicily and the pope's caution about a chancellor holding the capital's see. Stopped by: A papal refusal outright.
4. Spring 1200Markward besieges Palermo; Gentile of Palear holds the city.Depends on: Markward keeping his Muslim allies and his ships; the city's loyalty. Stopped by: A defeat of Markward in the west, a bargain with the chancellor, or a relief army arriving early.
5. 21 July 1200Battle near Monreale: the pope's hired troops under his cousin the marshal James, with the regency's men, break the siege and rout Markward, who flees; papal troops find Henry VI's testament in his baggage.Depends on: The papal army sailing and landing in time; the familiares holding together. Stopped by: Palermo falling first, or the chancellor making his peace with Markward earlier.
6. After July 1200William Grasso, count of Malta, abandons Markward and goes over to the regency, which confirms his titles and offices.Depends on: Markward's defeat at Monreale. Stopped by: A Markward victory.
7. 1200 (date not given)Markward is beaten a second time by the papal troops, at Randazzo in the north-east.Depends on: Markward campaigning in the east after Monreale. Stopped by: His withdrawal west, or peace.
8. September 1200The king's government grants Palermo a privilege of freedom from dues on goods entering and leaving the city by land and sea (keeping the port dues on wine and oil), with grazing and wood rights, for its loyalty in the troubles Markward stirred up.Depends on: Palermo holding out. Stopped by: Palermo's fall.
9. November 1200The pope's refusal of Palermo and his favour to Walter of Brienne drive the chancellor into Markward's arms: Markward is admitted to the college of familiares (November 1200, Federiciana) and given the government of the island except Palermo, which with the king stays with Gentile.Depends on: The pope backing Walter of Brienne and refusing the chancellor Palermo. Stopped by: A papal compromise with the chancellor.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201Innocent III excommunicates the chancellor and strips him of his church offices; Walter of Brienne, married to Tancred's daughter Elvira, campaigns in Apulia for Lecce and Taranto with papal backing and beats the chancellor and Diepold at Canne on 22 October 1201.Depends on: The rupture between pope and chancellor; Walter of Brienne's arrival (see the apu records). Stopped by: A reconciliation.
2. November 1201Markward takes Palermo and the king, through the treachery of the palace guards; he becomes Frederick's guardian in fact.Depends on: His alliance with the chancellor and the weakness of Gentile's garrison. Stopped by: A papal army in Sicily, or the chancellor's fidelity to Rome.
3. Mid-September 1202Markward dies at Patti; the German captain William Capparone seizes the palace and the king with Pisan backing (December 1202) and holds them until November 1206.Depends on: Markward's natural death (dysentery, or after an operation for the stone). Stopped by: A change in his circumstances in play.

Places of note

• Royal palace (New Palace) with the Cappella Palatina and the treasury tower: The king's residence and the seat of the familiares
• Castellammare (Old Palace): The sea castle at the harbour
• Castrogiovanni: The great royal fortress of the interior
• Messina arsenal and palace: The fleet's base and the second royal city

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes Part 8.3 say the chancellor holds Palermo and the boy king. The Enciclopedia Federiciana (Messina) says that after Constance's death the boy king and the regency council took refuge at Messina, which Markward attacked in vain, that the king confirmed the Messinese privileges in December 1199 and that he left Messina in 1200. On that evidence the king is at Messina on 1 January 1200, with Palermo held for him by the chancellor's people (Gentile defends it in spring 1200).
• GM ruling 4 (Palermo): the Dizionario Biografico (Gualtiero di Pagliara) says Archbishop Bartholomew of Palermo died in late 1199 and the chapter then elected Walter, approved by the legate in March 1200; the it.wikipedia list gives Bartholomew April 1192 to 1199 and Walter as elect March to May 1200. On this evidence the see is vacant on 1 January 1200. The campaign notes leave it open (1199 or 1200).
• campaign notes Part 4 do not list Cardinal Cinzio (Cinthius) of S. Lorenzo in Lucina among the cardinals away from Rome; the Dizionario Biografico has him in Sicily as legate approving Walter's election in March 1200. He may have sailed during the winter; his whereabouts on 1 January are not pinned.
• campaign notes Part 6 E: Capua's archbishop is among the names not pinned; it.wikipedia gives Matthew until his death in summer 1199 and Rainald of Celano from about October 1199. Monreale: Caro (before 1194 to after 1222). Messina: Berardo (it.wikipedia: Bernardo), from 1196 (before April) to 1228 by the Federiciana, to after September 1226 by it.wikipedia. Catania: Roger Orbus, before April 1195 to after August 1206. Lipari-Patti: Stephen, before 1179 to after 1201.
• The en.wikipedia article on Walter of Palearia says Gentile surrendered Palermo to Markward in 1198; this is wrong by every other source read (it was November 1201).
• Familiares: the campaign notes name only Walter of Palear. Huillard-Breholles' note on Constance's testament gives the chancellor and the archbishops of Palermo, Monreale and Capua; Innocent III's 1199 letter to the familiares adds the archbishop of Reggio (five in all, as the Federiciana says).

Evidence: The regency's shape, the chancellor's career and the 1200 chronology rest on the Dizionario Biografico (Walter of Palear) and the Enciclopedia Federiciana (Markward, Palermo, Innocent III), with the diocesan lists of it.wikipedia for the prelates. The membership of the council beyond the chancellor, the holders of the island's castles and the side taken by each town that winter are thin.

On the map: Lordship in the kingdom is rights over castles, towns and people, not a line: the regency's polygon marks the ground where no rival is known to be in control that winter. The border with the Muslim mountains and Markward's west is drawn roughly and is not documented for 1 January 1200.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Montecassino; Annals of Ceccano (Fossanova) (12th and early 13th centuries; Ceccano to 1217). Two sets of annals from either side of the papal and Sicilian frontier. Read online
• Chronicle of Richard of San Germano, Richard of San Germano (first version about 1216, enlarged to 1243). The fullest southern narrative of the Hohenstaufen kingdom, written by a notary on the border of the Terra di Lavoro. Read online
• Annals of Genoa, by Caffaro and his continuators, with Ogerio Pane for 1197 to 1219, Ogerio Pane and the other official annalists of Genoa (year by year under the commune's authority; the 1197 to 1219 section by Ogerio Pane). The official record of the commune. Read online
• Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
• Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Chronicle of Sicard, bishop of Cremona, Sicard of Cremona (about 1210 to 1213). A universal chronicle whose last part is a well-placed eyewitness account by a Lombard bishop who served emperors and popes. Read online
• The Deeds of Innocent III, Anonymous (a curial official, perhaps Peter of Benevento) (about 1208 to 1209). The curia's own account of the pontificate's first decade, with letters copied in. Read online
• The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
• Register of Innocent III on the affair of the Roman Empire, Innocent III and the papal chancery (1198 to 1209, compiled as a separate register at the curia). The pope's own file on the German throne war: letters to and from Philip, Otto, the German princes and bishops, and the famous Deliberatio of late 1200 or early 1201 in which Innocent weighs the claims of Frederick, Philip and Otto before deciding for Otto. Read online

3 more in the sources library for Southern Italy and the Islands.