against making a bid for the disintegrating kingdom of Jerusalem. How-
ever, he clearly regarded himself as the rightful ruler of Cyprus.
For its part, though, the papacy was fully absorbed with a far more
urgent matter–a threat to the entire Angevin project in southern
Italy and Sicily. As we have seen, this was the emergence of a credible
Hohenstaufen challenger to Charles, in the person of the teenage
Conradin, the grandson and heir of Frederick II (and, in fact, also the
king of Jerusalem, although his authority there was almost entirely
nominal). Charles soon showed the steady nerves that were his hall-
mark, mustering his forces to meet the invasion. It would seem that
Hugh of Brienne perceived the obvious advantages offighting for the
papal champion, and hastened south to join his kinsman.^110 After a
parlous opening, the Angevins inflicted a crushing defeat on their
enemies at Tagliacozzo on 23 August. In the aftermath of his triumph,
Charles restored his position in the South with brutal efficiency, send-
ing a shocking, unambiguous message with Conradin’sexecutioninthe
market square at Naples.^111
It is therefore easy to assume that, by the autumn of 1268, Hugh had
joined Charles for good. However, the evidence suggests otherwise. It
took some time before Hugh decided that Charles represented the best
hope for his future. The count of Brienne returned to France soon after
the battle of Tagliacozzo, and he does not seem to have set foot in the
kingdom of Sicily over the course of the next few years.^112 In so far as we
can tell, he remained in the north, trying to drum up support for an
expedition to Cyprus.^113 Certainly, it is fortunate that a surviving charter
tells us that Hugh was in Italy again, at Viterbo, in early 1270.^114 It is
reasonable to infer that he had come for consultation with what he hoped
would be an amenable new pope, but he found the electoral process in
deadlock. This was, in fact, the longest vacancy in papal history, span-
ning the period from November 1268 to September 1271. With little
help forthcoming from the Church, Hugh may well have gone on to meet
Charles in the late spring of 1270. Perhaps this was the period when the
decision wasfinally made that Hugh would come to settle in southern
Italy. He was clearly preparing to leave Brienne in May, as is attested by a
(^110) There is widespread agreement that Hugh fought at Tagliacozzo, even though hard
evidence is lacking. See, for example, de Sassenay,Brienne, 139; and Dunbabin,The
French in the Kingdom of Sicily, 143.
(^111) For this, see Dunbabin,Charles I of Anjou, 218–19.
(^112) Roserot,Dictionnaire, i, 245; and J. H. Pryor,‘Soldiers of Fortune in the Fleets of
Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily, ca. 1265– 85 ’, 124, inMercenaries and Paid Men: The
113 Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages, ed. J. France (Leiden, 2008).
‘Catalogue’, nos. 186–7.^114 Ibid., no. 188, and see also nos. 158, 168.
126 The Angevins and Athens (c. 1267–1311)