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Holy War and Crusade in Southern Italy: Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries

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Crusading Against Christians in the Middle Ages

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Abstract

The kingdom of Sicily was one of the most active theatres of crusading against Christians. The kingdom of Sicily saw the beginnings of holy wars against the political enemies of the papacy and the first uses of crusading indulgences to that end. It was a laboratory for the development of the internal crusades. This chapter outlines the proto-crusades that targeted southern Italy and Sicily in the twelfth century, such as those against Roger II and Markward of Anweiler, and their evolution into full-scale crusades during the thirteenth century, first against Frederick II and then against his heirs. These latter crusades were mostly fought by the Angevins and provided them with the support needed against the last Hohenstaufen. The revolt of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282 forced the papacy to use the crusade again, against the kingdom of Aragon and the Sicilians. The crusades launched during the war of the Vespers until 1302 aimed to maintain the integrity of the kingdom of Sicily in favour of the Angevins, but they failed, in particular in attracting participation from the Guelphs from northern Italy, and they eventually faded.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See David S. H. Abulafia, “The Kingdom of Sicily and the Origins of the Political Crusades,” in Società, istituzioni, spiritualità. Studi in onore di Cinzio Violante, vol. 1 (Spoleto, 1994), 65–77.

  2. 2.

    Hippolyte Pissard, La guerre sainte en pays chrétien. Essai sur l’origine et le développement des théories canoniques (Paris, 1912).

  3. 3.

    Abulafia, “The Kingdom of Sicily and the Origins of the Political Crusades,” 66.

  4. 4.

    Joseph R. Strayer, “The Political Crusades of the Thirteenth Century,” in idem, Medieval Statecraft and the Perspectives of History (Princeton, 1971), 123–58.

  5. 5.

    Norman Housley, “Crusades against Christians: Their Origins and Early Development, c.1000–1216,” in idem, Crusading and Warfare in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (Aldershot, 2001), no. I, 17–36.

  6. 6.

    Norman Housley, The Italian Crusades: The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades against Christian Lay Powers, 1254–1343 (Oxford, 1982).

  7. 7.

    As remarked, regarding the specific case of the crusades against Frederick II, in Gianluca Raccagni, “The Crusade against Frederick II: A Neglected Piece of Evidence,” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 67/4 (2016): 721–40.

  8. 8.

    Cf. the chapter by Leardo Mascanzoni in this volume.

  9. 9.

    Giuliano Milani, “Uno snodo nella storia dell’esclusione. Urbano IV, la crociata contro Manfredi e l’avvio di nuove diseguaglianze nell’Italia bassomedievale,” Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome. Moyen Âge 125/2 (2013), online at https://journals.openedition.org/mefrm/1278.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    On the papal armies, see Daniel Waley, “Papal Armies in Thirteenth Century,” The English Historical Review 72/182 (1957): 1–30.

  12. 12.

    For an effective examination of these aspects, see Housley, “Crusades against Christians,” 17.

  13. 13.

    In this campaign, the pope recruited and led an army against the Norman counts: see ibid.

  14. 14.

    Abulafia, “The Kingdom of Sicily and the Origins of the Political Crusades,” 68; Housley, “Crusades against Christians,” 23.

  15. 15.

    Housley, “Crusades against Christians,” 23.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., 24.

  17. 17.

    Berardo Pio, “Marquardo Di Annweiler,” in Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani 70 (Rome, 2008); Theo Kolzer, “Marcovaldo di Annweiler,” in Enciclopedia Federiciana (Rome, 2005).

  18. 18.

    Strayer, “The Political Crusades of the Thirteenth Century,” 346.

  19. 19.

    See e.g. Elizabeth T. Kennan, “Innocent III and the First Political Crusade,” Traditio 27 (1971): 231–50.

  20. 20.

    Housley, “Crusades against Christians,” 31, generally agrees with retaining the appellation “first political crusade” for the campaign against Markward, although he acknowledges the lack of evidence on the “full apparatus of the crusade.” For more recent analysis of the same case, which also agrees with the use of the term “political crusade” and examines the sources available, see Rebecca Rist, The Papacy and Crusading in Europe, 1198–1245 (London, 2009), at 171–202.

  21. 21.

    Raccagni, “The Crusade against Frederick II”; Graham A. Loud, “The Papal ‘Crusade’ against Frederick II in 1228–1230,” in La Papauté et les croisades / The Papacy and the Crusades, ed. Michel Balard (Farnham, 2011), 91–104. See also the chapter by Gianluca Raccagni in this volume.

  22. 22.

    Abulafia, “The Kingdom of Sicily and the Origins of the Political Crusades”; Loud, “The Papal ‘Crusade’ against Frederick II in 1228–1230”; Raccagni, “The Crusade against Frederick II.”

  23. 23.

    Raccagni, “The Crusade against Frederick II,” 723.

  24. 24.

    Loud, “The Papal ‘Crusade’ against Frederick II in 1228–1230,” 98; Raccagni, “The Crusade against Frederick II,” 724.

  25. 25.

    See the chapter by Gianluca Raccagni in the present volume.

  26. 26.

    On Manfred and on the negotiations between the papacy and the kingdom of England, see: Steven Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers. A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1958); Raffaello Morghen, Il tramonto della potenza sveva in Italia. 1250–1266 (Rome; Milan, 1936); Enrico Pispisa, Il regno di Manfredi. Proposte di interpretazione (Messina, 1991).

  27. 27.

    Housley, The Italian Crusades, 16–17.

  28. 28.

    See the chapter by Gianluca Raccagni in this volume.

  29. 29.

    Les registres d’Urbain IV, II/2, ed. M. J. Guiraud, (Paris, 1892–1929), nos. 802, 804, 807 where Charles is said to be “from that royal lineage from which the Church has always received and still receives sons of blessing and joy, sons powerful in action and reputation, sons of opportune help and favour” [“de illa regia stirpe progenitum de qua suscepit semper et suscipit eadem ecclesia filios benedictionis et gaudii, filios factis et fama pollentes, filios oportuni auxilii et favoris”] and where there is also mention of the “magnificent Charles (i.e. Charlemagne), son of Pepin, progenitor of the same count” [“magnificum Carolum, Pipini filium, eiusdem progenitorem comitis”] (804). See also Alessandro Barbero, “Il mito angioino nella cultura italiana e provenzale fra Duecento e Trecento. 1: La multiforme immagine di Carlo d’Angiò,” Bollettino Storico-Bibliografico Subalpino 79 (1981): 107–220.

  30. 30.

    Rinaldo Comba, “Le premesse economiche e politiche della prima espansione angioina nel Piemonte meridionale (1250–1259),” in Gli Angiò nell’Italia nord-occidentale 1259–1382, ed. Rinaldo Comba (Milan, 2006), 15–30.

  31. 31.

    Housley, The Italian Crusades, 18.

  32. 32.

    Milani, “Uno snodo nella storia dell’esclusione.”

  33. 33.

    Ibid. See also John Padgett, “The Emergence of Corporate Merchant-Bank in Florentine Dugento,” in The Emergence of Organizations and Markets, ed. John Padgett and Walter Powell (Princeton, 2012), 121–77.

  34. 34.

    Housley, The Italian Crusades, 18–19.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 19. See also Julie A. Taylor, Muslims in Medieval Italy: The Colony of Lucera (Lanham, 2003); Christoph T. Maier, “Crusade and Rhetoric against the Muslim Colony of Lucera: Eudes of Châteauroux’s Sermones de Rebellione Sarracenorum Lucherie in Apulia,” Journal of Medieval History 21 (1995): 343–85.

  36. 36.

    Les registres de Martin IV (1281–1285): recueil de bulles de ce pape, ed. M. Olivier-Martin (Paris, 1901–1935), 107–20.

  37. 37.

    Bartholomaei de Neocastro, Historia Sicula, ed. Giuseppe Palladino, RIS NS 13/3 (Bologna, 1921–22), p. 27, lines 3–6: “Quid quoque referam Tuscos, et Ligures, ac alios, quos crusignatos Romana misit Ecclesia bellatores, […] qui et quae in desolationem et dispendium urbis Phariae venerant […] ?” [“And what shall I say of the Tuscans, and the Ligurians, and others whom the Roman Church sent as cross-bearing warriors, who had come to the desolation and waste of the city of Messina?”]. Also Housley was probably misled by this passage; see Housley, The Italian Crusades, 20.

  38. 38.

    See in particular Nikolaos G. Chrissis, Crusading in Frankish Greece: A Study of Byzantine-Western Relations and Attitudes, 1204–1282 (Turnhout, 2012), 238–49.

  39. 39.

    Die Chronik des Saba Malaspina, ed. Walter Koller and August Nietschke, MGH SS 35 (Hanover, 1999), p. 297, lines 3–6: “Interea rex Karolus se ad transfretandum parat in insulam, cuius licet maior pars navigii esset Messane, cum quo credebat solempnizare passagium Romanie, de reliquis tamen vassellis […] sufficientem poterat habere conservam ad passagium in Syciliam faciendum” [“Meanwhile, King Charles was preparing to cross over to the island, even though the larger part of his fleet was in Messina, with which he intended to solemnise a crusade to Romania (i.e. Byzantium). He could still have an adequate escort from the remaining vessels for making the crossing to Sicily”].

  40. 40.

    Les registres de Martin IV, 125–26. See also Housley, The Italian Crusades, 20–22.

  41. 41.

    Les registres de Martin IV, 130–31, 190–91.

  42. 42.

    Joseph R. Strayer, “The Crusade against Aragon,” Speculum 28/1 (1953): 102–13.

  43. 43.

    Housley, The Italian Crusades, 115–16.

  44. 44.

    Jean Cancellieri, “De Mari, Arrigo,” in Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani 38 (Rome, 1990).

  45. 45.

    Strayer, “The Crusade against Aragon.”

  46. 46.

    See John H. Pryor, “The Naval Battles of Roger of Lauria,” in Medieval Ships and Warfare, ed. Susan Rose (Aldershot, 2008), 179–216.

  47. 47.

    Housley, The Italian Crusades, 21.

  48. 48.

    Les registres d’Honorius IV, 16–18.

  49. 49.

    Les registres de Nicolas IV, ed. Ernest Langlois (Paris, 1886), 17.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 113–114.

  51. 51.

    The bibliography on the reign of Charles II is quite scarce. See in particular August Nitschke, “Carlo II d’Angiò, Re Di Sicilia,” Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani 20 (Rome, 1977), and Émile Leonard, Les Angevins de Naples (Paris, 1954).

  52. 52.

    Bartholomaei de Neocastro, Historia Sicula, p. 109, lines 31–35: “Et eo sic locuto, statim de Regno Siciliae principem coronavit, et dato sibi exfortio equitum et peditum crucesignatorum, ac Guelforum Tusciae, Aprutii, Campaniae et partium Lombardiae, ipsum cum innumerabili comitiva bellatorum et legato Apostolicae Sedis contra rege Jacobum et sequaces suos, qui cum eo erant apud Gajetam, mittens accelerat” [“And having said this, he immediately crowned the prince of the kingdom of Sicily and gave him a strong force of cross-bearing knights and foot soldiers, as well as troops from the Guelphs of Tuscany, Abruzzi, Campania, and Lombardy. He himself, accompanied by an innumerable company of warriors and the legate of the Apostolic See, hastened to send them against King James and his followers, who were with him in Gaeta”].

  53. 53.

    See Les registres de Nicolas IV, 518–19.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., 497, 677.

  55. 55.

    See Housley, The Italian Crusades, 21–22. See also Les registres de Nicolas IV, 892.

  56. 56.

    Housley, The Italian Crusades, 23, 176–77; Les registres de Boniface VIII, ed. Antoine Thomas (Paris, 1884–1939), 3, 125–31.

  57. 57.

    This is true specifically for the period after Charles I’s death in 1285; there is almost no evidence of Guelph militias from northern Italy in the war of the Sicilian Vespers between 1285 and 1302. See below.

  58. 58.

    Salimbene de Adam Cronica, ed. Giuseepe Scalia (Bari, 1966), p. 820, lines 24–26: “Sed crux non fuit predicata, quia post breve tempus subsecuta est mors tam Karoli quam summi et Romani pontificis.” See also Housley, The Italian Crusades, 20–21.

  59. 59.

    See in particular Housley, The Italian Crusades, 158–60.

  60. 60.

    See, for instance, Les registres de Boniface VIII, 3, 125.

  61. 61.

    Chronicon Parmense ab anno MXXXVIII usque ad annum MCCCXXXVIII, ed. Giuliano Bonazzi, RIS NS 9/9 (Città di Castello, 1902), p. 60, lines 17–24: “Quingenti viri de hominibus civitatis et episcopatus Parme, acepta cruce pro eundo in subsidio Terre Sancte de ultra mare […] se moverunt […]. Et post paucos dies alij centum viri secuti fuerunt predictos” [“Five hundred men from the city and bishopric of Parma, having received the cross for going to the aid of the Holy Land overseas, set out. And after a few days, another hundred men followed the previous group”].

  62. 62.

    See Paolo Grillo, La falsa inimicizia. Guelfi e ghibellini nell’Italia del Duecento (Rome, 2018), 82–86.

  63. 63.

    Giovanni Villani Nuova Cronica, ed. Giuseppe Porta (Parma, 1991), ch. 64, p. 421: “Il Comune di Firenze mandò in aiuto del re Carlo cinquanta cavalieri di corredo, e cinquanta donzelli gentili uomini di tutte le case di Firenze per farli cavalieri, e con loro compagnia furono Vc bene a cavallo e in arme” [“The Commune of Florence sent in aid of King Charles fifty knights and fifty squires from all families of Florence to make them knights. And in their company there were 500 armed horsemen”].

  64. 64.

    Ibid., ch. 68, pp. 426–27.

  65. 65.

    Leonardi Aretini, Historiarum Florentini Populi, ed. Emilio Santini, RIS NS 19/3 (Città di Castello, 1914), p. 69, lines 31–32: “Equites vero florentini a rege dimissi domum rediere, incolumes quidem” [“As for the Florentine knights, they were dismissed by the king and returned home unharmed”].

  66. 66.

    Giovanni Villani Nuova Cronica, ch. 130, p. 494: “E furono in quantità di VIIIc cavalieri e IIIm pedoni per accompagnare il detto prenze […]; ma però i Fiorentini accompagnarono il detto prenze infino di là de la Bricola a’ confini del contado di Siena” [“And there were 800 knights and 3000 foot soldiers to accompany the prince. However, the Florentines only accompanied the prince beyond the Bricola, at the borders of the Sienese contado”].

  67. 67.

    Regarding this, see Housley, The Italian Crusades, 231–45.

  68. 68.

    Matthaei de Griffonibus, Memoriale Historicum, ed. Lodovico Frati and Albano Sorbelli, RIS NS 18/2 (Città di Castello, 1902), p. 24, lines 34–35: “Charolus, filius regis Karoli, qui erat princeps, captus fuit ab exercitu regis Petri de Ragona et comune Bononiae misit in auxilium ipsius Karoli IIIIc pedites” [“Charles, son of King Charles, who was prince, was captured by the army of King Peter of Aragon, and the Commune of Bologna sent in Charles’ aid 400 foot soldiers”]; see also Corpus Chronicarum Bononiensium, ed. Albano Sorbelli, RIS NS 18/1 vol. 2 (Città di Castello, 1910–38) p. 225, lines 7–16.

  69. 69.

    Corpus Chronicarum Bononiensium, pp. 233–34, lines 31–34: “E in quello anno siecento Bolognisi e diese millia Ytaliani andono ultra mare; e allora se perdé la città di Acri, zoè che li Christiani la tolsero a li infideli” [“That year six hundred Bolognese and ten thousand Italians went overseas and took the city of Acre, that is the Christians took it away from the infidels”].

  70. 70.

    Bologna, Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Comune—Governo, Riformagioni e Provvigioni 137, fols. 1r, 1v. The document also states that the donation to Charles II was made pro eo aut clare memorie domino Regi Karolo patri sui, highlighting that the relationships established by Charles I were strong and still valuable after his death.

  71. 71.

    Bartholomaei de Neocastro, Historia Sicula, p. 109, lines 31–35.

  72. 72.

    Giovanni Villani Nuova Cronica, ch. 64, p. 422: “E per simile modo molte città di Toscana e di Lombardia mandarono aiuto di genti a lo re, ciascuno secondo suo podere” [“And in a similar way, many cities of Tuscany and Lombardy sent people to help the king, each according to their ability”].

  73. 73.

    Annales Placentini Gibellini, ed. Georg Heinrich Pertz, MGH SS 18 (Hanover, 1864), pp. 457–581, at 577, lines 29–31: “Domnus rex Karolus suos ambaxatores misit in Lombardiam pro petendo auxilium et iuvamen a civitatibus Lombardie qui sunt eius amici; et Placentini donaverunt eis 2000 florinos auri in verbis; tamen nundum illos florinos ei dederunt” [“King Charles sent his ambassadors to Lombardy to request assistance and support from the Lombard cities that were his allies. The people of Piacenza donated him 2000 gold florins in words, however they never sent him these florins”].

  74. 74.

    Antonino De Stefano, Federico III d’Aragona re di Sicilia (1296–1337) (Bologna, 1956), 88–101.

  75. 75.

    Federico Canaccini, Ghibellini e ghibellinismo in Toscana da Montaperti a Campaldino (1260–1289) (Rome, 2009), 90–91.

  76. 76.

    MGH, Const. 4/2 (Hanover, 1909–11), p. 755, lines 14–38: “Videlicet quod nos Fredericus Trinacrie rex predictus promittimus prefatum dominum Romanorum rege servire personaliter per unum annum in presenti inchoandum cum septies centum equitibus in armis […] et cum triginta gualeys” [“I, Frederick, king of Trinacria, promise to personally serve the lord Roman Emperor for one year, to be commenced immediately, with seven hundred armed knights … and thirty squires”]; “Prefatum dominus noster Romanorum rex erit bonus, verus et fidelis amicus ipsius domini Frederici regis Trinacrie […] et iuvabit et confortabit ipsum in suis iuribus acquirendis, recuperandis, manutenendis et deffendendis ab omnibus et contra omnes, exceptis […] Clemente papa quinto et suis successoribus, ecclesia Romana et rege Francie” [“Our lord, the Roman Emperor, will be a good, true, and faithful friend to King Frederick of Trinacria … and he will assist and support him in acquiring, recovering, maintaining, and defending his rights against all and everyone, except … Pope Clement V and his successors, the Roman Church, and the king of France”].

  77. 77.

    Ibid., p. 822, lines 28–30: “Vos premissorum intuyto et ob causas predictas supremum et generalem nostrum et sacri Romani imperii facimus maris et costituimus quoad vixeritis admiratum et officium admirati imperii” [“Considering the aforementioned premises and for the reasons stated, we hereby appoint and constitute you as our supreme and general admiral of the Holy Roman Empire, with authority over the seas and coasts, for as long as you shall live, fulfilling the duties of the admiral of the imperial fleet”]. See also ibid., pp. 823–824; and Salvatore Fodale, “Federico III d’Aragona, re di Sicilia,” in Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani 45 (Rome, 1995).

  78. 78.

    Clifford R. Backman, The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Religion, and Economy in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296–1337 (Cambridge, 1995), 66; De Stefano, Federico III d’Aragona re di Sicilia, 170–77.

  79. 79.

    See in particular Henri Bresc, Un monde méditerranéen: Économie et société en Sicile 1300–1450 (Rome, 1986).

  80. 80.

    See the chapter by Mike Carr in the present volume.

  81. 81.

    De Stefano, Federico III d’Aragona re di Sicilia, 205–47.

  82. 82.

    See Norman Housley, The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305–1378 (Oxford, 1986), 74–81.

  83. 83.

    On this phase of Robert’s reign, see in particular Romolo Caggese, Roberto d’Angiò e i suoi tempi, 2 vols. (Florence, 1922–1930), 2:1–22. See also the chapter by Leardo Mascanzoni in the present volume.

  84. 84.

    See Giovanni Tabacco, La casa di Francia nell’azione politica di papa Giovanni XXII (Rome, 1953), 281–311.

  85. 85.

    Caggese, Roberto d’Angiò e i suoi tempi, 22–48.

  86. 86.

    Abulafia, “The Kingdom of Sicily and the Origins of the Political Crusades,” 76–77.

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    Francesco Migliazzo

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  1. School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Mike Carr

  2. Department of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Nikolaos G. Chrissis

  3. School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Gianluca Raccagni

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Migliazzo, F. (2024). Holy War and Crusade in Southern Italy: Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries. In: Carr, M., Chrissis, N.G., Raccagni, G. (eds) Crusading Against Christians in the Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47339-5_3

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