ITALY. 



3-19 



Anjou as their lord, and having received from him a 

 troop of 800 French horse, under the command of Guy 

 de Montfort, once more expelled the Ghibelines, who 



. were forced to take refuge at Pisa and Sienna. Flo- 

 rence immediately declared war against these two re- 

 publics; and, joined by the army of the king of Naples 

 commanded by himself, laid siege to the castle of Pog- 

 gibonsi near Sienna, which, after holding out for four 

 months, was at length compelled to surrender. Charles 

 then marched into the territory of Pisa, and made him- 

 self master of several fortresses belonging to that state. 

 In the mean time, the Neapolitans and Sicilians, long- 



ing for deliverance from the yoke of the French, had 

 sent a deputation into Germany to solicit Conradin to 

 reclaim the inheritance of his ancestors. The ambassa- 

 dors of l'i-a and Sienna reconded these solicitations ; 

 and Martino delta Scalla at Verona, and Oberto Pel- 

 Uvicino at I'avia, promising to assist him with their 

 troops, the young prince entered Italy, accompanied 

 rederic duke of Austria, and attended as far as 

 Verona by the duke of Bavaria, his uncle, and the 

 count of Tyrol, his step-father, with their troops. From 

 Verona he proceeded to Pavia, and at the head of 3500 

 cavalry, passed through Lombardy without opposition. 

 1 .urina had now revolted from Charles ; Henry of Cas- 

 tile, senator of Rome, had declared in favour of Conra- 

 din ; and the pope, beginning to tie alarmed, recalled 

 Charles from Tuscany to defend his own kingdom. 

 While that prince laid siege to Luceria, Conradin re- 

 paired to Pisa, and having there received considerable 

 reinforcements, attacked and defeated William de Bel- 

 selve, Charles' lieutenant in Tuscany. From thence 

 he proceeded to Rome, and, regardless of the anathe- 

 mas of Clement, who had retired to Viterbo, converted 

 to his own use, such of the treasures of the church as 

 as he could get possession of. His army now amount- 

 ted to 5000 cavalry, at the head of which he entered 

 Abrusxo, and encamped in the plain of Tagliacono. 

 He waa there attacked by the army of Charles, which 

 only eonsisted of 3000 men, 800 of whom he placed in 

 ambuscade under the command of Alard de St. Valery. 

 The first charge of Conradin waa successful, and the 

 h were put to flight ; but the Germans having 

 found the body <>f prince Henry of Cosenca, and taking 

 it for that of the king of Naples, imagined that their 

 y was complete, and leaving their ranks, proceed- 

 ed to plunder. In this state of disorder, they were 

 charged by St. Valery'* reserve with complete success, 

 and Conradin and hi* barons, after a short resistance, 

 obliged to betake themselves to flight. Having arrived 

 at Astura, 45 miles from the field of battle, he embark- 

 rd in a boat, with the intention of landing in Sicily; 

 but being pursued by Frangipani lord of AituQs, was 

 by him taken prisoner and delivered up tn Charles. 

 The king, determined to get rid of his unfortunate com- 

 petitor, summoned him before him as a traitor. The 

 of tin* mock trial was, (as might be expected,) 

 the condemnation of Conradin ; and the hut male re- 

 preatnuuve of the house. of Suabia perished on the 

 scaffold. This execution took place in the presence of 

 Charles, and was followed by that of the duke of Aus- 

 tria, the two Lancias, the counts Donoratico of Pisa, 

 and many others of the adherents of Conradin. The 

 inhabitants of Augusta in Sicily were put to the sword, 

 and in every city of the kingdom the unfortunate 

 Ghibelins were inhumanly massacred. 



Two month* after the execution of Conradin, the 

 pope, Clement FV. died; and a* for nearly three years, 

 the conclave could not agree in electing a *ucces*or, 



the states of the church remained, during the interval, Hitorr. 

 under the power of Charles. That ambitious prince v *" > ^,'^ 

 now aimed at making himself master of all Italy. His 

 attempts had at first every prospect of SUCCESS. The 

 power of the Ghibeline lords in Lombardy was now 

 much weakened ; and at a general diet of the Guelph 

 cities at Cremona, the king of Naples was declared 

 head of their confederation, and was, by many of them, 

 acknowledged as their lord. His attention, however, 

 was now for a time diverted from the affairs of Italy 

 by the last crusade of his brother St. Louis. 



On the death of this zealous defender of the faith of D "'li <? 

 the plague near Tunis, Charles assumed the command ; St L<*& 

 but no sooner had he defeated the Bey of Tunis, and 

 compelled him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the 

 crown of Sicily, than he returned home; and his ex- 

 ample was followed by the other crusaders, except Ed- 

 ward of England, who alone proceeded to the Holy 

 Land. 



The cardinal: at length elected Tebaldo Visconti, ^. D. l7i. 

 then in Palestine, who, on his return, assumed the 

 name of Gregory X. His first attempt was to recon- 

 cile the Guelph and Ghibeline states. For which pur- 

 pose, he travelled Into Tuscany ; and at Florence, Pisa, 

 and Sienna, was successful in recalling the Ghibeline 

 exiles. But the king of Naples, who considered this 

 pacification as not at all conducive to his interest, con- 

 trived, in a very short time, to force them again to 

 emigrate. The pope, fully aware of his ambitious de- 

 signs, attempted to give a head to the empire, who 

 might serve as a check to him ; and having persuaded 

 the other competitors to withdraw their claims, Ho- 

 dot jili of Hapsburg was elected king of the Uumans. A. D. 1273. 

 He next succeeded in reconciling to the Western church 

 the Grecian emperor, Michael Paleologus; and still re- 

 taining that seal against the infidels, which had carried 

 him in his youth to Palestine, was preparing to lead 

 another army of crusaders to that country, when his \. D. 127 . 

 plans were interrupted by death. The reigns of his 

 three immediate successors, Innocent V. Adrian V. and 

 John XXI. together only Luted one year; but Ni- 

 cholas III. the next elected pontiff, exerted all his great 

 personal talents, and the interest of his family, (the Or- 

 sini at Rome,) to carry into effect the schemes of Gre- 

 gory X. Having conciliated the friendship of the Ger- 

 man monarch, he contrived completely to shake off the 

 yoke of Charles of Anjou ; and had afterwards the ho- 

 nour of acting as mediator bctw een these two princes. 

 The latter was obliged to give up the office of senator 

 of Rome, and head of the Tuscan Lcxgue ; and the for- 

 mer granted the long denied charter, which entirely se- 

 parated the territories of the See of Home from the do- 

 mains of the empire. Having appointed his brother, 

 Bcrtoldo Orsino, count of Romagna, he nominated se- 

 ven new cardinals of his family and connections, and 

 thus secured a majority in the sacred college. His last 

 act was to bring about, by means of his legate cardi- 

 nal Latino, a peace at Bologna, between the Gicrimei 

 and I.arnIx.-rUZ7.i, two powerful families, whose dissen- 

 sions had involved their fellow citizens in war ; and ;it 

 Florence, between the Guelphs and (iliibclinc*. These 

 transactions were soon followed by the death of Nicho- 

 las, whose reign had been thus useful to the church, 

 and advantageous to his own family. 



An important i evolution hnd in the mean time taken F.iptdiiio* 

 place at Milan. The archbiithop, Utho \ i-conti, with of "* Tor- 

 tin- nobles, after a long warfare, defeated and took """'' "'" 

 priioner Napoleon delta Torre ; and the Milanese hav- 

 ing expelled the remaining branches of the family, con- 



