Power and Authority, A Trial of Two Swords

Introduction 7
Prologue 21

PART I UNIO REGNI AD IMPERIUM 25
1. The Kingdom of Sicily 27
Freedom of the Church 27
The Treaty of Melfi 30
Roger II becomes king of Sicily 32
His title confirmed by Innocent II 35

2. The Holy Roman Empire 39
The Rise of a New Roman Empire in the West 39
The Lombard problem 39
A new king of the Franks 41
Pope Stephen II goes to Gaul 43
The Donation of Pepin 44
Pope Stephen II grants the Roman patriciate to Pepin 45
Charlemagne conquers the Lombard kingdom 47
The Donation of Charlemagne 50
Charlemagne crowned as Roman Emperor 52
The Hludowicianum 58; Constitutio romana 61
Rapid decline of Charlemagne’s empire 62
The Tribal Kingdom 62
The German succession 64
Otto I in Italy 66
The Ottonianum and the Roman synod of 963 68
The Salian emperors 70
The ‘election’ of Conrad III 72
The election of Frederick I 73

3. Frederick I ‘Barbarossa’ 77
Frederick I defines ‘Gelasian’ doctrine 77
Two Swords 80
The Treaty of Konstanz 81
The Italian policy of Frederick I 83

4. The Italian Kingdom 85
The German kings and Italy 85
Barbarossa comes to the Italian kingdom 88
The constitutional problems ahead 90

5. Pope Hadrian IV and Frederick I 93
An awkward meeting at Sutri 93
Barbarossa meets ambassadors from
Rome 95; Barbarossa refuses to invade Sicily 97
King William I asserts his authority 99

6. Cardinal Bandinelli 101
The Treaty of Benevento 101
Cardinal Bandinelli 102
The Besançon incident 103

7. The Parliament of Roncaglia 105
Barbarossa takes on Milan 105
The lex ‘Omnis iurisdictio’ 107
The Lombard conundrum 108

8. Pope Alexander III 111
A contested papal election 111
The Pavia Council 112
The destruction
of Milan 113
A failed summit 114
Barbarossa marches on Rome 116
Alexander III back in Rome 117
The Roman disaster 117
The Lombard League 118
Alessandria 120
The siege of Alessandria 121
The Battle of Legnano 122

9. Peace in Venice 125
Negotiations in Anagni 125
The papal peace strategy 126
The pope goes to Venice 127
The Ferrara conference 128
Barbarossa’s reservations 130
Barbarossa confronted with an ultimatum 130
Barbarossa in Venice 132

10. The Second Storm from Swabia 135
The Peace of Konstanz 135
Barbarossa returns to Lombardy 136
Henry VI marries Constance of Sicily 138
The Roman ‘Kaiser’ 139
Tancred of Lecce and Richard of England 141
The coronation of Henry
VI 142; His failed Sicilian campaign 143
The capture of Richard of England 144
Henry VI is crowned king of Sicily 147

11. Innocent III and the Kingdom of Sicily 149
Birth of Frederick II 149
He is raised in Sicily 150
Innocent III 151
Contested elections 152
The election of Philip of Swabia 153
Innocent III and the German election 154
Papal involvement in Sicilian affairs 157;
Walter of Brienne 160
The King comes of age 162
Lessons learned 163
The ruined kingdom 164

12. Otto IV and the Kingdom of Sicily 167
Papal adversities 167
Philip of Swabia prevails 169
Philip comes to terms with Innocent III 171
Innocent III and Otto IV 172
Innocent III and Philip ‘Auguste’ 173
Otto IV is re-elected 175
He refuses to make peace with France 175
Otto IV comes to Italy 176
His conference with
Innocent III in Viterbo 178
His coronation by Innocent III 179
Otto IV meets with Sicilian malcontents 180
He decides to invade Sicily 181
Otto IV is excommunicated 182
Otto IV leaves Italy 184
Innocent III is out of options 185
Frederick II accepts his election and submits to the papal conditions 186
He leaves Sicily 189
He meets Innocent III 190
His passage to Germany 191
He pays his debts 193
The battle of Bouvines 195

13. Crusade 199
Frederick II takes the cross 199
The Fourth Lateran Council 200
The Albigensian Crusade 201
The third canon of the Fourth Lateran Council 203
The matter of Raymond VI of Toulouse 205
The matter of the Empire 207
The crusading army is to depart on 1 June 1217 209

14. Procrastination and Deception 211
Promises and true intentions 211
The Fifth Crusade 212
Mounting pressure on Frederick II and Honorius III 215
Henry (VII) elected King of the Romans 217
Frederick II returns to Italy 218
His imperial coronation 219

15. Excommunication I 221
Frederick II returns to the Sicilian kingdom 221
The Assizes of Capua 223
Sicilian affairs 224
The Fifth Crusade ends in disaster 225
The Ferentino conference 227
Rising animosity in the curia against Frederick II 227
Frederick II turns his attention to Lombardy 229
His failure to reform
the Italian kingdom 231
Gregory IX excommunicates Frederick II 233

16. Atonement 235
The reaction of Frederick II 235
Preparations of Frederick II for a new crusade 236
Frederick II in the Holy Land 238
Frederick II in Jerusalem 240
Gregory IX invades the Sicilian kingdom 241
Rearrangement of papal policy 243
The Peace of S. Germano 245
The decisive role of the German princes 247

17. Competing Legislators 251
The Emperor 251
Frederick II decides to codify Sicilian royal legislation 251
The king sole
guarantor of peace and justice 253
Legislation his exclusive domain 254
The incident of the coronation statutes 255
The Cult of Justice 257
The nature of Frederick’s code 258
Gregory IX disapproves of the Sicilian codification project 260
The Pope 260
Gregory’s code of canon law 261
Nature and effectiveness of Gregory’s code 262
Gregory IX at war with the Romans 264

18. Excommunication II 267
Henry (VII) and the German princes 267
Assassination of Duke Louis of Bavaria 268
Frederick II and the German princes 269
The emperor, the pope, and the Lombard League 272
Frederick II and his son Conrad depart for Germany 275
The deposition of Henry (VII) 276
The Diet of Mainz 276
Reconciliation with the Guelphs 278
Frederick’s son Conrad
not elected king of the Romans 279
Frederick justifies his Lombard
policy 280; Frederick in Lombardy and in Austria 281
Frederick’s
son Conrad nominated as ‘king elect’ 282
Frederick attempts to rally
the European princes into an anti-clerical alliance 284
Gregory IX
asserts his plenitudo potestatis 285
The battle of Cortenuova 286
Frederick excommunicated a second time 288

19. Frustrated councils 291
Cardinal Pecorara’s secret mission to France 291
Frederick II urges the cardinals to call a general council 293
Gregory IX launches a crusade
against Frederick II 295
Frederick II before the walls of Rome 297
A temporary truce 299
Gregory IX calls a general council 300
The battle of Monte Christo 302

20. Diversions 305
Sedis vacantia 305
German reactions to Frederick’s second
excommunication 307
The Mongol invasion 309
Frederick II and
Innocent IV 311
Negotiations to restore peace 312
Cardinal Capocci takes the initiative 314
A preliminary peace agreement 314
Heinrich ‘Raspe’ is approached 317
The pope panics 319
He leaves Italy and seeks asylum in France 320
Innocent IV goes to Lyon and calls a general council 324

PART II DIES IRAE 327
1. The Summons 329
An emperor on trial 329
Historical precedents 330
The doctrine of
plenitudo potestatis 331
Legal authorities: the decretal ‘Venerabilem’ 334
The decretal ‘Excommunicamus’ 336
The decretal ‘Novit ille’ 337
The decretal ‘Per venerabilem’ 338
Frederick II refuses to stand trial 339

2. The Venue 343
Innocent IV in Lyon 343
An unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation 343
A last attempt at reconciliation 347
Setting the stage 350

3. The Trial 353
The First Session 353
Innocent IV brings his charges 353
The charge of heresy 355
The Second Session 357
A witness to the character of Frederick II 357
The charge of sacrilege 358
Master Thaddaeus requests a suspension 359
The Adjournment 361
Codification of the secular privileges of the Church 361
Preparing a definitive judgment 362
An important legal brief 363
The papal decisio 367
Frederick II in Verona 368
The Third and Final Session 368
From Lyon to Verona and back again 370
Another ‘last’ peace
initiative 372; Master Thaddaeus objects 373
Innocent IV rejects all objections 375
The Sentence 376
The emperor declared guilty of four serious crimes 377
Frederick’s Reaction 381
Due process 382
The summons contested 385
Frederick warns the
European monarchs 386
Innocent IV rejects all criticism 387
Frederick II appeals to the French nobility 388

4. Execution 391
Execution by way of assassination 391
The Parma conspiracy 392
The Sicilian conspiracy 393
Louis IX tries to mediate 395
Heinrich Raspe ‘elected’ king of the Romans 398
The German electoral college 399
Death of Heinrich Raspe 401
Frederick II loses Parma 403
William of Holland ‘elected’ king of the Romans 405
Victoria 407; Louis IX warns the pope 409
The Seventh Crusade 410
Another assassination attempt 412
The death of Piero della Vigna 412
Enzio imprisoned in Bologna 413;
The demise of Frederick II 414

5. Extermination 417
Conrad IV 417
Conrad IV leaves Germany 417
Conrad IV dies 419
Manfred 421
Innocent IV in search of a new king of Sicily 421
The Sicilian kingdom
after the demise of Conrad IV 424
Innocent IV takes control of the Sicilian kingdom 426
Dissolution 429
Manfred strikes back 429; The German succession crisis 429
The League of the Rhine 431
The electors selling their votes 432
A contested election 433
The nadir of the Empire 434
King Manfred 435
Manfred is crowned king of Sicily 435
Manfred’s Italian policy 437
Urban IV 438; Charles of Anjou 440
Charles of Anjou senator of Rome 442
The king’s troubled conscience 444
Urban IV and Manfred 445
The king’s conscience at ease 448
Urban IV restates papal policy 450
Provencal troops in Rome 452
Manfred’s failed offensive 453
Clement IV elected pope 454
Charles of Anjou in Rome 457
Death of Manfred 460
Conradin 463
The Sicilian exiles and Italian Ghibellines turn to Conradin 463
Conradin 468
he Augsburg conference 469
Developments in Rome and Tuscany 472
Conradin in Verona 474
Conradin in Pavia 478
Clement IV wields the spiritual sword 482
Conradin in Rome 483
Defeat 485; Humiliation 488; Death 492

6. Aftermath 497
The Grand Design of Charles of Anjou 497
Charles of Anjou represses all resistance in the Sicilian kingdom 497
Charles of Anjou in Tunis 499
Michael VIII, Charles of Anjou and Gregory X 501; John of Procida in Germany 506
The Holy Roman Empire 506
Rudolph of Habsburg elected king of the Romans 508
The Second Council of Lyon 510
Gregory X at Beaucaire 514
The Lausanne conference 520
Nicholas III, Rudolph I and Charles of Anjou 522
The Kingdom of Sicily 522
The English intermezzo 524
Nicholas III plans to reform the Roman Empire 525
Martin IV and Charles of Anjou 529
John of Procida in Aragon 532
Overcoming obstacles 535
The Aragonese-Byzantine alliance 538
The Sicilian Vespers 540
Peter of Aragon comes to Sicily 544
Charles of Anjou besieges Messina 546
Charles of Anjou loses Sicily 548
Trial by Battle 550
Peter of Aragon excommunicated and deposed 551
The Aragonese crusade 553
The death of kings 555
Epilogue 559
Medieval Totalitarianism 559
Medieval Corporate Government 566
Select Bibliography 579
Index of People and Places 597
Simplified Genealogical Trees 613

Maps 625
List of Illustrations 629