THE \VESTER!'\ MEDITERRA.NEA!'\ KINGDOMS 1200-1'100There were further dividends. His conquest of the south
brought him enthusiastic support from a wide range of Italian
towns, and when the representatives of the Lombard Guelf
communes came to a great conference at Milan in 1266,
there were Angevin observers there too, who were much in
evidence. It was going to be difficult to avoid northern
entanglements, even if Charles took no official title in north-
ern Italy. And yet after the death of Manfred the north
Italian Ghibellines did not delay in finding a substitute pat-
ron. Conradin, that infant son of Conrad IV whom Manfred
had unceremoniously displaced from the throne of Sicily,
emerged as an urgently desired political hope. First fugitives
from southern Italy, then the Tuscan Ghibellines, called on
him - aged a mere fourteen years - to come to Italy and
to achieve for the Hohenstaufen cause what Charles had
achieved on the papal behalf.^7
At the start of 1267 the pope could see no alternative to
asking Charles to intervene in Tuscany. Pope Clement IV
allowed him to hold office for up to three years: the post of
podesta, governor, had already been offered by the citizens of
Prato and Pistoia, two significant towns near Florence. Yet
it was difficult to see where to resist Conradin most vigor-
ously. As the boy claimant entered Italy the native nobles of
southern Italy began to agitate in Charles's rear. Sicily rose
in revolt for the first time in Charles's reign. A mixed force
which even included Berbers sent by the king of Tunis seized
control of most of the island, except the two main towns of
Palermo and Messina.~ On the mainland of southern Italy
another small army under Henry, prince of Castile, was act-
ive against Charles, on whose side Henry had in fact fought
at Benevento. Disillusioned with Charles, who had not in
his view shown him sufficient generosity, Henry was made
Captain-General of the Ghibellines in Tuscany.
A hearty welcome at Ghibelline Pisa encouraged Con-
radin to march southwards to claim his inheritance. Charles
of Anjou was forced to hurry south to try to quash at least
some opposition before Conradin crossed the frontiers of the
Kingdom of Sicily. From the siege of the rebellious Muslim
colony at Lucera, Charles went to meet Conradinjust inside
the borders of the kingdom, near the village of Tagliacozzo.
- Runciman, Sirilian VesjJns, pp. 118-20.
- Ibid., p. 121.