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1 results

  • 16 - The kingdom of Sicily under the Hohenstaufen and Angevins

  • from Part IV - Italy
  • David Abulafia, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    21 October 1999, pp 498-522

  • Summary

    The Sicilian kingdom, encompassing also the south of Italy, contained a great variety of lands, with distinctive economic, ethnic, religious and political characters. In the thirteenth century, the ready availability of staple goods was, rather, seen as a source of wealth to whichever would-be conqueror acquired control of the kingdom. Charles, count of Anjou, the brother of King Louis IX of France, had appeared on the papal shortlist as a possible leader of an invasion of southern Italy as far back as 1252. Charles's growing interest in Balkan affairs is seen as part and parcel of the traditional concerns of the Norman and Hohenstaufen kings of Sicily. The 1270s saw a series of small-scale campaigns in the Balkans against the armies of Michael VIII. The Angevins had to withstand a siege of Durazzo in 1274, but were unable to avoid humiliation in battle at Berat in 1281.