The History of Naples

The kingdom in brief

Essential Chronology

Mainland southern Italy and Sicily were conquered independently by various Norman knights, the former from the Byzantines and Lombards, the latter from the Saracens, in the course of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries.

They were formed into the Kingdom of Sicily, with its capital at Palermo, under Count Roger II of Sicily (1130).

This kingdom was conquered successively by the Hohenstaufens (Swabia) and the Angevins (Anjou and Provence); Charles I of Anjou moved the capital to Naples.

Under the Angevins, and thereafter, the mainland is known as ‘Sicilia citra Farum’ (i.e., Sicily on this side of the lighthouse marking the straits of Messina), but comes often to be called the Kingdom of Naples; the island of Sicily is known as ‘Sicilia ultra Farum’ (beyond the lighthouse).

The revolt known as the Sicilian Vespers (1282) separated the island from the mainland and placed it under Aragonese rule; after the conquest of Naples by Alfonso of Aragon (1435-42) the island and the mainland came again under a single ruler, but on Alfonso’s death (1458) they were again separated; the conquest of Naples by Ferdinand of Aragon (1501-04) once more placed them under a single ruler, but administrative union in the form of the ‘Kingdom of the Two Sicilies’ was not carried through until 1816.

1059 to 1189

The Normans

1059 Treaty of Melfi; Pope Gregory VII legitimizes conquests by Robert Guiscard and his Norman associates under papal suzerainty

1130-1154 Roger II, previously count of Sicily, claims kingship of Sicily, Apulia, and Capua (1130); overcomes opposition of Pope Innocent II by defeating and capturing the pope. His successors are William I, the Bad (1154-1166) and William II, the Good (1166-1189)

1186 Constance, aunt of William II, marries Henry, heir of Frederick Barbarossa; on William’s death she is his heiress (1189)

1189 to 1268

The Hohenstaufens

1189-1197 Emperor Henry VI claims the Sicilian throne in the right of his wife; he is opposed by Tancred of Lecce (d. 1194)

1198-1250 Frederick of Hohenstaufen (b.1194; later Emperor Frederick II)

1198 Queen Constance before her death places Frederick under the guardianship of Pope Innocent III; rivalry among German-Sicilian administrators

1208 Emperor Otto of Brunswick makes a claim to Sicily, opposed by the pope; Frederick of Hohenstaufen takes over government (but leaves for Germany, 1212)

1220 Frederick returns to Sicily having become Emperor Frederick II (he pretends to leave for Jerusalem, 1227, and actually leaves, 1228)

1229 Pope Gregory IX claims Sicily in Frederick’s absence, but he returns and re-establishes his authority

1231 Frederick II proclaims the Constitutions of Melfi (the Liber Augustalis), organizing the government of the Kingdom of Sicily under an apparatus of royal control (he leaves again for Germany, 1235)

1236 Frederick II begins a series of campaigns in northern Italy that drain the resources of Sicily (he returns to Apulia, 1249, and dies there)

1250-1254 Emperor Conrad IV; he names his illegitimate half-brother Manfred as vicar in Sicily and Italy

1254-1266 Manfred assumes power in his own right after Conrad IV’s death; (he is crowned at Palermo, 1258, and extends his influence to northern Italy)

1262 Charles of Anjou accepts Pope Urban IV’s offer of Sicilian kingship

1266 Battle of Benevento; Manfred defeated and killed by Charles

1268 Conradin (son of Conrad IV) leads an expedition to reclaim Sicily; at the battle of Tagliacozzo he is defeated by Charles and executed at Naples

1266 to 1516

Angevins to Hapsburgs

Three dynasties ruled Naples between Charles I of Anjou and Charles of Hapsburg: the Angevins, the Angevins of Durazzo and the Aragonese.

1266 to 1816

Sicily Under Anjou and Aragon

Angevin Conquest, Revolt, Aragonese Intervention

1266-1282 Charles of Anjou becomes king as a result of his victories on the mainland; makes Naples his capital rather than Palermo

1282 The ‘Sicilian Vespers’, a popular uprising against the French in which many are massacred; Peter III of Aragon, inheritor of the Hohenstaufen claims in Sicily and South Italy as the husband of Manfred’s daughter, lands on the island with an armed force

1282-1285 Peter III is crowned as Peter I of Sicily, refuses homage to the pope

1285-1295 James I (second son of Peter) becomes King of Sicily while his elder brother Alfonso III inherits the Crown of Aragon

1291 On the death of Alfonso III James I of Sicily becomes also James II of Aragon (to 1327); returning to Aragon, he places his younger brother Frederick in charge of Sicily

The Independent Monarchy

1296-1337 Frederick II (younger brother of James I), on James coming to terms with Pope Boniface VIII and abdicating the kingship of Sicily (1295), with the backing of the Sicilian Estates declares himself an independent king; he is excommunicated by the Pope and war against Naples follows

1302 Treaty of Caltabellotta, with Charles II of Naples; Frederick’s position is reluctantly acknowledged, but the Angevins will continue to make attempts to dislodge the Aragonese from Sicily

1337-1342 Peter II

1342-1355 Louis, inheriting the throne at the age of four, is unable to establish a strong government and accepts a tributary relationship to the papacy. Baronial clans (especially the Chiaramonte and the Ventimiglia) quarrel for power

1355-1377 Frederick III, the Simple. Intermittent war against Naples continues

1372 Naples and the papacy come to terms with Frederick as a tributary King of ‘Trinacria’

1377-1402 Mary of Aragon (daughter and heiress of Frederick III); government is effectively taken over by the heads of four baronial families who style themselves ‘vicars’

1390 Mary is taken to Aragon and married to Martin ‘the Younger’ (grandson of John II of Aragon); they return with a military force (1392), defeat the opposing barons, and rule jointly until Mary’s death (1402). Martin repudiates the treaty of 1372 and rules as King of Sicily

1402-1409 Martin I, the Younger (widower of Mary of Aragon) rules alone

1409-1410 Martin II, the Elder (Martin I of Aragon, father of Martin the Younger) inherits Sicily after his son’s death

Union with Aragon

1410 On the death of Martin the Elder, Sicily subject to disorder remains in union with Aragon, and is ruled by the kings of the House of Trastamara (1412-1516) and then by the Hapsburgs; mainland Naples is also in union with Aragon under Alfonso the Magnanimous (1435-1458) and again under Ferdinand the Catholic (from 1501 on), but the island will be governed separately from the mainland until 1816