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Charles of Anjou's Invasion of Southern Italy

Type Event Region Italy Time 1265–1266

In 1265–1266 Charles of Anjou, backed by Pope Clement IV, invaded southern Italy, defeating and killing Manfred at Benevento in 1266 and ending Hohen…

Timeline

  1. 1263–1265Rome · LazioPope Urban IV, seeking to counter King Manfred of the Hohenstaufen, invited Charles of Anjou of the French Capetian line to become overlord of the Kingdom of Sicily. After years of negotiation an agreement was reached in 1265: Charles gained Sicilian overlordship in exchange for military and financial support to the Holy See. In May 1265 Charles arrived in Rome with his fleet and began gathering forces for the southern campaign.
  2. 1266Rome (Archbasilica of St John Lateran) · LazioOn 6 January 1266 Pope Clement IV crowned Charles of Anjou in Rome as King of Sicily. Immediately after the coronation Charles organized his combined army of French knights, Provençal soldiers, and Italian allies and marched south. This marked the papacy's full declaration of war on the Hohenstaufen and gave Charles legitimacy to wage a holy war in southern Italy.
  3. 1266Benevento · CampaniaOn 26 February 1266 the armies of Charles and Manfred clashed near Benevento. Manfred's Saracen archers and cavalry gradually broke under the charge of Charles's heavily armored French knights. Manfred himself was killed in the melee, and his body was later identified. The Battle of Benevento was one of the most decisive engagements in 13th-century Italy, ending over thirty years of Hohenstaufen rule in the Kingdom of Sicily; Charles then seized Naples and took control of all southern Italy.
  4. 1266Naples · CampaniaAfter Benevento, Charles quickly cleared remaining resistance, made Naples the new dynasty's capital, and established effective control over the Kingdom of Sicily. He settled numerous French and Provençal nobles throughout southern Italy and reorganized the administrative and military systems. The last Hohenstaufen scion, the young Conradin, was captured at the Battle of Tagliacozzo in 1268 and later executed in Naples, extinguishing any possibility of the family's restoration. The Angevins thus dominated southern Italy for over a century, until the Sicilian Vespers uprising of 1282.

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