The changing character and composition of communes often followed the fortunes of this struggle over rights. Increasingly, divisions between landowning magnates and popolo concealed the process of coalition making characteristic of early 13th-century urban politics. The regime of the podesta (which had its origins in imperial appointees), formed in the second half of the 12th century to provide greater stability and protection against violence, was already becoming more professionalized in the age of Frederick II. The preference for professional officials, strongly evidenced by mid-century in the writings of Albertanus of Brescia and others, aimed to prevent the military aggrandizement of an Ezzelino da Romano or an Azzo d’Este and to defend communal values.
The pars ecclesiae very often controlled the commune and stood for communal independence. Although some disputes with bishops were an inevitable feature of the Italian urban scene, alliances between bishops and communes grew more common in the 13th century. Imperial ideology was largely driven from the field. Likewise, class-based economic disputes varied in importance from one place and time to another; these disputes reflected the fundamental concerns over rights, especially over property, on both the local and the imperial-papal level, that shaped Italian urban politics. The end of Hohenstaufen rule
The final decade of Frederick II’s reign marked the end of the imperial system in Italy. Although Frederick seemed at times on the verge of repeating Barbarossa’s achievement, he could not marshal the resources needed for the task. His kingdom of Sicily fell more and more victim to his need for money to fight his war in the north, which all but ended the efforts at good government that had motivated his Constitutions of Melfi (1231). Increasingly, Frederick mortgaged his income from the kingdom to Roman bankers and subordinated the interests of the kingdom to the needs of the empire. His relations with the northern Italian maritime powers, save for Pisa and to some degree Venice, continued to deteriorate in the 1240s, but he remained dependent on income from taxes on their trade and could not entirely break ties with them. Instead, he tried to compete directly with them and to control their access to the ports of the Sicilian kingdom. The pressures of war largely determined his policies. The death of Pope Gregory IX in 1241 at first promised the possibility of a resolution. But it soon became clear that the cardinals could not proceed to an election because of their internal division. It was only in 1243 that they finally selected the Genoese cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi, one of the leading legal experts of the period, who took the name Innocent IV. The new pope soon demonstrated his unwillingness to compromise with Frederick, identifying papal interests closely with those of the Lombard cities. Under threat from the Romans, the pope left Italy and summoned a general council of the church to meet in Lyon in 1245. This council sealed the rupture between Frederick and the papacy and ensured that there would be little chance for a reconciliation in future negotiations. Frederick’s position remained militarily secure, but threats of conspiracies and growing opposition marked the final years of his reign. He was the last medieval emperor to assert his rule in northern Italy.
The death of Frederick II at Fiorentino in Puglia on Dec. 13, 1250, ended an era and opened the way for a new political order. The papacy determined that it would no longer tolerate the rule of the Hohenstaufen in Italy and opposed Frederick’s son and successor, Conrad IV, as well as Frederick’s natural son, Manfred, who became de facto ruler in the kingdom of Sicily and, following Conrad’s death in 1254, secured the crown for himself. Conrad’s son, Conradin (Conrad V), continued, however, to be the official heir. Even before Innocent IV died in 1254, the papacy tried to secure aid from the English king Henry III (1216–72), promising the Sicilian crown to his younger son Edmund. Innocent’s successor, Alexander IV (1254–61), soon discovered the folly of this effort and began to search elsewhere. Meanwhile, Manfred consolidated his position in the kingdom and in the march of Ancona. In northern Italy the passing of Frederick enabled tyrants such as Ezzelino da Romano to assert their virtual independence under the guise of supporting Manfred. Even the death of Ezzelino in 1259 did not impede the trend toward military rule. Almost everywhere, the ethos of strong government overwhelmed the rule of the communes.
The death of Frederick and the virtual failure of his line left a power vacuum. The papacy turned for support to Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX (1226–70) of France. While Frederick was alive, Louis had remained aloof from the conflict and had even expressed his disapproval of the papacy’s actions against Frederick. However, after the death of Conrad, he supported his brother’s bid for the Sicilian kingdom against Manfred. At the same time, Charles’s arrival in Italy set a new direction for politics in the north, where the Guelfs welcomed him. He proceeded to Rome, followed by a Crusader army that had support from the pope, Clement IV (1265–68), himself a Frenchman. Charles fended off Manfred while awaiting his own army, which had traveled overland. On Feb. 26, 1266, he defeated Manfred and his forces on the plain of Grandella, near Benevento. This battle ended Hohenstaufen rule in Italy and began the Angevin dominance that lasted through most of the rest of the 13th century. Charles succeeded to the Sicilian throne (1266–85) and asserted his leadership in Rome and in northern Italy. He quickly defeated a futile challenge by Conradin and had him executed in Naples (1268).
The papal party of the Guelfs was dominant in the north; the papacy ruled in the centre; the Angevins were in control in Sicily and Naples; and the whole was held together by the strong personality and ambitious dreams of Charles of Anjou (Charles II). As matters turned out, many of his dreams differed but slightly from those of the Hohenstaufens. Moreover, despite their aggressive and grandiose character, most of them seem to have had little basis in reality. Charles had designs on the Byzantine Empire and North Africa, as is evident from Crusade" class="md-crosslink">Louis IX’s Crusade to Tunis in 1270, which ended in disaster. The north of Italy was growing more and more restive under the rule of Charles. Pope Nicholas III (1277–80), sensing the direction of things, removed Charles from his position as senator at Rome and from his vicarship in Tuscany. The papacy also spearheaded efforts at reconciliation between Guelfs and Ghibellines. But Charles resisted and endeavoured to increase his influence over the papacy. Pope Martin IV (1281–85), a strong Angevin supporter, restored him to his former offices. But before Charles could reap the benefits of his reinstatement, he faced an insurrection in Sicily. The so-called Sicilian Vespers—an uprising on Easter Monday of 1282, when citizens of Palermo attacked the French garrison—led to a protracted war known as the War of the Sicilian Vespers. The king of Aragon, Peter III, came to the aid of the rebellious Sicilians, while Charles received indirect support from his nephew, the king of France, as well as the papacy. After 20 years of intermittent warfare, the outcome was the division of the kingdom founded by the Normans. The mainland of southern Italy continued to be held by Charles’s successors (the Angevin dynasty), whereas the island of Sicily came under the rule of the Aragonese.