Chapter 5 - Page 2

the
Saracens. Frederick, that he might be suddenly abandoned by his
people, as Frederick Barbarossa and others had been, took into his pay
a number of Saracens; and to bind them to him, and establish in Italy
a firm bulwark against the church, without fear of papal maledictions,
he gave them Nocera in the kingdom of Naples, that, having a refuge of
their own, they might be placed in greater security. The pontificate
was now occupied by Innocent IV., who, being in fear of Frederick,
went to Genoa, and thence to France, where he appointed a council to
be held at Lyons, where it was the intention of Frederick to attend,
but he was prevented by the rebellion of Parma: and, being repulsed,
he went into Tuscany, and from thence to Sicily, where he died,
leaving his son Conrad in Suabia; and in Puglia, Manfred, whom he had
created duke of Benevento, born of a concubine. Conrad came to take
possession of the kingdom, and having arrived at Naples, died, leaving
an infant son named Corradino, who was then in Germany. On this
account Manfred occupied the state, first as guardian of Corradino,
but afterward, causing a report to be circulated that Corradino had
died, made himself king, contrary to the wishes of both the pope and
the Neapolitans, who, however, were obliged to submit.

While these things were occurring in the kingdom of Naples, many
movements took place in Lombardy between the Guelphs and the
Ghibellines. The Guelphs were headed by a legate of the pope; and the
Ghibelline party by Ezelin, who possessed nearly the whole of Lombardy
beyond the Po; and, as in the course of the war Padua rebelled, he put
to death twelve thousand of its citizens. But before its close he
himself was slain, in the eightieth year of his age, and all the
places he had held became free. Manfred, king of Naples, continued
those enmities against the church which had been begun by his
ancestors, and kept the pope, Urban IV., in continual alarm; so that,
in order to subdue him, Urban summoned the crusaders, and went to
Perugia to await their arrival. Seeing them few and slow in their
approach, he found that more able assistance was necessary to conquer
Manfred. He therefore sought the favor of France; created Louis of
Anjou, the king's brother, sovereign of Naples and Sicily, and excited
him to come into Italy to take possession of that kingdom. But before
Charles came to Rome the pope died, and was succeeded by Clement IV.,
in whose time he arrived at Ostia, with thirty galleys, and ordered
that the rest of his forces should come by land. During his abode at
Rome, the citizens, in order to attach him to them, made him their
senator, and the pope invested him with the kingdom, on condition that
he should pay annually to the