THE WESTERN MEDITERR:'I.l\EAN Kll\GDOMS 1200-1500of the Grimaldi family, Guelfs, earlier took control of the for-
tress of Monaco which was situated indeterminately between
Genoese territory and the lands of the Count of Provence
(1297).^1 ~ From there the Genoese Guelf exiles terrorised
the seas in the name of King Charles II and King Robert;
the doge of Venice was forced on several occasions to send
strongly-worded complaints to Robert of Anjou about Guelf
pirates from Monaco who assailed Venetian shipping in Pro-
ven<_:al or south Italian waters.
At the end of I317 the Guelf families seized power in
Genoa, and their rivals appealed to Matteo Visconti for armed
help. The Guelfs in reply appealed to Robert to send men,
money and ships to defend their besieged city. They recog-
nised him as lord of Genoa, jointly with Pope John; Robert
even transferred a small crusading flotilla, waiting at Mar-
seilles, from campaigns in the east to the relief of Genoa.
Robert's lordship was renewed until 1335, when a govern-
ment of reconciliation ejected the Angevins; before then
the king spent some months in Genoa, seeing the city as a
lever for the extension of Angevin authority eastwards from
Provence along the coasts of north-western Italy.'~ For much
of the period of the Angevin seigneury Genoa was actively
besieged by the extrinseci, or pro-Visconti exiles, who camped
in the suburbs and assaulted Genoese shipping. Genoa had
in effect become two hostile cities. The cost of this war to
Genoa was enormous; overseas trade was in disarray and the
major overseas colony, at Pera outside Constantinople, raised
the Ghibelline flag.
Robert spent several years in Provence, from 1319 to 1324,
in the hope that he could influence John XXII's plans. In
1322, Matteo Visconti, already excommunicated, became the
object of a large and widely-preached papal crusade. The
lord of Milan was accused of rank heresy. This accusation
opens an important and difticult problem. John XXII's use
of the 'political Crusade' as a weapon is often described as
- The Grimaldi still hold Monaco, though the line all but died out in
the nineteenth centurv. - David Abulafia, 'Genoya Angioina, 13111-35: gli inizi della Signoria eli
Roberto rc eli Napoli', La slmia dPi Genovrsi, vol. 12. Alii del Convegno
intrrnazirmale di studi sui Crti Dirigenti nPllt lslituzioni ddla Repubblim di
Gmova, 12a Tomata, Gnwva, 11-14 f.,riugno, 1991, part 1 (Genoa, 1994),
pp. 15-24.