§ 45. THE LAST OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN. 201
Urban IV., 1261-1264, was consecrated at Viterbo and did not enter Rome during his pontificate. He was a shoe maker's son and the first Frenchman for one hundred and sixty years to occupy the papal throne. With him the papacy came under French control, where it remained, with brief intervals, for more than a century. Urban displayed his strong national partisanship by his appointment of seven French cardinals in a conclave of seventeen. The French influence was greatly strengthened by his invitation to Charles of Anjou, youngest brother of Louis IX. of France, to occupy the Sicilian throne, claiming the right to do so on the basis of the inherent authority of the papacy and on the ground that Sicily was a papal fief. For centuries the house of Anjou, with Naples as its capital, was destined to be a disturbing element in the affairs, not only of Italy, but of all Europe.1 It stood for a new alliance in the history of the papacy as their ancestors, the Normans, had done in the age of Hildebrand. Called as supporter and ward of the papacy, Charles of Anjou became dictator of its policy and master of the political situation in Italy.
Clement IV., 1265-1268, one of the French cardinals ap pointed by Urban, had a family before he entered a Car thusian convent and upon a clerical career. He preached a crusade against Manfred, who had dared to usurp the Sicilian throne, and crowned Charles of Anjou in Rome, 1266. Charles promised to pay yearly tribute to the Apostolic see. A month later, Feb. 26, 1266, the possession of the crown of Sicily was decided by the arbitrament of arms on the battle field of Benevento, where Manfred fell.
On the youthful Conradin, grandson of Frederick II., the hopes of the proud German house now hung. His title to the imperial throne was contested from the first. William of Holland had been succeeded by the rival emperors, the
1 See the pages on the last popes of this period and of the last period of the Middle Ages, especially under Alexander VI. and Julius II.
202 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1216-1294.
rich Duke Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry ITT., elected in 1257 by four of the electors, and Alfonso of Castile, elected by the remaining three.1 Conradin marched to Italy to assert his rights, 1267, was met by the papal ban, and, although received by popular enthusiasm even in Rome, he was no match for the tried skill of Charles of Anjou. His fortunes were shattered on the battlefield of Tagliacozzo, Aug. 23, 1268. Taken prisoner, he was given a mock trial. The Bolognese lawyer, Guido of Suzarra, made an ineffec tive plea that the young prince had come to Italy, not as a robber but to claim his inheritance. The majority of the judges were against the death penalty, but the spirit of Charles knew no clemency, and at his instance Conradin was executed at Naples, Oct. 29, 1268. The last words that fell from his lips, as he kneeled for the fatal stroke, were words of attachment to his mother, " O mother, what pain of heart do I make for you ! "
With Conradin the male line of the Hohenstaufen became extinct. Its tragic end was enacted on the soil which had always been so fatal to the German rulers. Barbarossa again and again met defeat there ; and in Southern Italy Henry VI., Frederick II., Conrad, Manfred, and Conradin were all laid in premature graves.
At Conradin's burial Charles accorded military honors, but not religious rites. The Roman crozier had triumphed over the German eagle. The Swabian hill, on which the proud castle of the Hohenstaufen once stood, looks down in solemn silence upon the peaceful fields of Wiirttemberg and preaches the eloquent sermon that " all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass." The colossal claims of the papacy survived the blows struck again and again by
1 Alfonso never visited Germany. Richard spent part of his time there, but was destitute of political power. The threat of excommunication de terred the electors from electing Conradin. For the imperial electoral college, see Fisher, Med. Emp., I. 225 sq., and for Richard, see Richard v. Cornwall Kf.it sr. Wahl z. deulschen Koniy., 1905.