Latest / The Story of Italy: Rome, Renaissance, and the Birth of Modern Europe — Fexingo History / The Battle of Benevento 1266: Angevin vs Hohenstaufen
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about the struggles between popes and emperors in Italy — the Investiture Controversy, the Lombard League, Frederick Barbarossa. But there's one battle that really sealed the fate of the Hohenstaufen dynasty in Italy, and it happened right here, in the south, at Benevento, in 1266. Luna: Benevento — I've heard of it, but I don't know the details. Wasn't that where Manfred died? Lucas: Exactly. Manfred was the illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II, and after Frederick died in 1250, Manfred basically took over the kingdom of Sicily. He was a brilliant ruler — cultured, tolerant, a patron of the arts, just like his father. But politically, he was in a terrible spot. The papacy had been at war with the Hohenstaufen for decades, and they saw Manfred as a direct threat. Pope Clement IV, a Frenchman, decided to invite Charles of Anjou, the brother of King Louis IX of France, to come down and take the kingdom by force. Luna: So the pope basically hired a French prince to invade Italy? Lucas: That's exactly what happened. Charles was ambitious, ruthless, and he had papal backing — which meant he had legitimacy, plus a lot of money and troops. He marched into Italy in 1265, crossed the Alps, and by early 1266 he was in Rome, being crowned King of Sicily by the pope. Then he headed south toward Benevento, where Manfred had gathered his army. Luna: What was Manfred's army like? He must have known Charles was coming. Lucas: He did. Manfred had a mixed force. His core was made up of German and Italian knights, but his most feared troops were Saracen archers from the colony of Lucera — Muslims who had been settled there by Frederick II. They were loyal to the Hohenstaufen because they'd been protected by Frederick and Manfred. But Manfred also had a lot of Apulian barons in his army, and their loyalty was shaky. Many of them had already been in contact with Charles, promising to switch sides if things went badly. Luna: That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Lucas: It was. The battle took place on February 26, 1266, near the bridge over the Calore River, just outside Benevento. Manfred chose to fight on the plain, which favored his cavalry. But Charles had learned from the French experience in the Crusades — he dismounted many of his knights, turning them into heavy infantry, which was more stable against cavalry charges. Luna: So the French fought on foot? That's unusual for the time. Lucas: It was a tactical innovation. Charles also had a strong contingent of Provençal crossbowmen. The battle opened with Manfred's Saracen archers raining arrows on the French, but the crossbowmen replied and the archers were eventually driven off. Then the cavalry charges began. Manfred's German knights — heavily armored, on big horses — charged the French line, but the dismounted knights held firm. Meanwhile, the Apulian barons on Manfred's left wing barely fought — they just sort of melted away, as planned. Luna: So Manfred was betrayed in the middle of the battle. Lucas: Exactly. When Manfred saw his left wing collapse, he realized the day was lost. But instead of fleeing, he charged into the thick of the fighting — some say he pulled his helmet off so he'd be recognized, almost daring death. And he was killed. His body was found later, covered in wounds. Charles refused him a Christian burial because he was excommunicated. He was buried under a pile of stones at the bridge — a kind of commoner's grave. Luna: That's brutal. What happened to his family? Lucas: Manfred's wife and children were captured. His daughter Constance was married off to Peter III of Aragon — which later gave the Aragonese a claim to Sicily, leading to the Sicilian Vespers we covered in episode 31. His sons were imprisoned for life. And the Hohenstaufen cause didn't die entirely — Manfred's nephew Conradin, a teenager, tried to reclaim the kingdom two years later, but he was defeated at Tagliacozzo in 1268 and then executed in Naples. That was the end. Luna: So Charles of Anjou basically wiped out the Hohenstaufen line. Lucas: He did. And the consequences were huge. Charles established the Angevin dynasty in Naples, which ruled for nearly two centuries. He moved the capital from Palermo to Naples, which shifted the cultural center of gravity northward. He also imposed heavy taxes and a more feudal system, which bred resentment — that resentment eventually exploded into the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, when the Sicilians rose up and invited the Aragonese in. Luna: So Benevento was really the turning point. It set up the whole later conflict. Lucas: Absolutely. And there's a poetic irony: Manfred's father Frederick II had been one of the most enlightened rulers of the Middle Ages — he spoke six languages, wrote a book on falconry, founded the University of Naples. And his son died in a muddy field, abandoned by the very barons his father had kept in check. The Hohenstaufen dream of a unified, centralized Italian kingdom died with him. Luna: It's almost like a Shakespearean tragedy. Lucas: It really is. And the battlefield itself? There's not much to see today — just a plaque near the bridge. But the memory of that day lingered. Dante placed Manfred in Purgatory, not Hell — he portrayed him as a repentant sinner, with his wounds still fresh, asking for prayers. That's a remarkable gesture, given that Manfred was excommunicated. Dante was a Guelph, but he could still see the human tragedy in it. Luna: That's beautiful. So the battle lived on in literature as well as politics. Lucas: Exactly. And it's worth remembering that Benevento wasn't just a battle between two dynasties — it was a clash of cultures: the cosmopolitan, multi-religious world of the Hohenstaufen court, with its Muslim soldiers and Jewish scholars, versus the more rigid, French Catholic world of the Angevins. The Angevin victory helped push Italy toward a more Latin, more papal future — away from the imperial, multicultural vision that Frederick and Manfred had represented. Luna: So in a way, the Battle of Benevento decided not just who ruled, but what kind of Italy would emerge. Lucas: Exactly right. And that's a theme we'll see again and again in Italian history — the struggle between openness and control, between empire and papacy, between north and south. Benevento was one of those hinge moments.