THE WESTER!\ MEDITERRANEA!\ KJNCDOMS 1200-1.~00then, the Sicilian patriot of the nineteenth century, Michele
Amari, found ample grounds for a hostile portrait; and
yet French historians since then have sometimes shown a
sneaking regard for one who created an 'empire fran<;:ais'
in the Mediterranean.^2 A thirteenth-century Italian sculptor,
Arnolfo di Cambia, portrayed Charles with a stern, bleak
expression which was perhaps intended to convey a sense of
remote majesty rather than of remoteness of character. Like
Frederick II, he was a man of many moods.
Despite attempts by Manfred to win papal sympathy for
proposed crusades, and despite indecision - or more likely
clashes of opinion - at the papal court, Charles was eventu-
ally adopted as papal champion; the promise of annual trib-
ute amounting to 10,000 Sicilian ounces of gold suggests that
the pope gave way to financial as well as political temptations.
Charles was forbidden to lay any claim to the imperial lands
or titles in Italy, nor even in the lands of the Church, for there
were understandable fears that he would become another
Frederick, ruling both northern and southern Italy, and
squeezing the papal lands in central Italy. Charles won the
prize of papal assurance that a crusade would be preached
and funds levied on his behalf in France and Provence, and
the signs are that he took his duties as a crusader against
the faithless Manfred very seriously.:\ Speeches attributed to
him before his victories at Benevento and Tagliacozzo make
plain his insistence that he was fighting sin on behalf of the
Holy Church.~
Charles's military plans were well under way in 1265.
He negotiated terms with Lombard towns and Italian lords
through whose lands he proposed to take his anti-Hohen-
staufen crusaders. He saw that his Sicilian campaign could
not succeed in the face of opposition within northern Italy.
Given Manfred's influence in the north, he needed strong
- M. Amari, History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers,^3 vols (London,
1850); a more favourable view is in L. Cadier, Essai sur /'administration
du Royaume angevin de Sicile (Paris, 1891); references here are to the
new Italian edn prepared by F. Giunta, L 'amministmzione della Sicilia
angioina (Palermo, 1974). - N. Housley, The Italian Crusades. The papal-Angevin alliance and the Cru-
sades against Christian lay powers, 1254-1343 (Oxford, 1982), pp. 18-19,
33-4, 68-9, 98-9, 166. - Housley, Italian Crusades, p. 166.