Richard Filangieri (c.1195–1254/63) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 nobleman who played an important part in the Sixth Crusade

Sixth Crusade

The Sixth Crusade started in 1228 as an attempt to regain Jerusalem. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade. It involved very little actual fighting...

 in 1228–9 and in the War of the Lombards

War of the Lombards

The War of the Lombards was a civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus between the "Lombards" , the representatives of the Emperor Frederick II, largely from Lombardy, and the native aristocracy, led first by the Ibelins and then by the Montforts...

 from 1229–43, where he was in charge of the forces of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...

, battling forces on the other side, local barons first led by John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut

John of Ibelin, the Old Lord of Beirut

John of Ibelin , called the Old Lord of Beirut, was a powerful crusader noble in the 13th century, one of the best known representatives of the influential Ibelin family...

. During the first half of Filangieri's career he was a Ghibelline

Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...

, but during the second a Guelph

Guelphs and Ghibellines

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states...

. He was a member of the Filangieri

Filangieri

The Filangieri were an Italo-Norman noble family with origins near Nocera in the Kingdom of Sicily, but they rose to prominence at Naples...

 family of Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

.

Rise to influence in Italy

He was the eldest son of Giordano I, lord of Nocera

Nocera Inferiore

Nocera Inferiore, formerly Nocera dei Pagani, is a town and comune in Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, at the foot of Monte Albino, 20 km east-south-east of Naples by rail.-History:...

, and Oranpiassa. His younger brothers were Giordano II

Giordano Filangieri II

Giordano Filangieri was a Neapolitan nobleman, the son of Giordano, lord of Nocera, and Oranpiassa, and younger brother of Riccardo. Both he and his brother became involved in the high politics of the Kingdom of Sicily....

, Lothair, and Henry. He was educated as a knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 and married Iacoba, daughter of Pietro Cottone, who had been made count of Lettere

Lettere

Lettere is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 30 km southeast of Naples. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 5,917 and an area of 12.0 km²....

 and castellan

Castellan

A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...

 of Gragnano

Gragnano

Gragnano is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 30 km southeast of Naples. As of 1 January 2007, it had a population of 29,818 and an area of 14.6 km². "A hill town wedged between a mountain crest and the Amalfi Coast," Gragnano is home some...

 in 1198 by Queen Constance

Constance of Sicily

Constance of Hauteville was the heiress of the Norman kings of Sicily and the wife of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor...

. By his marriage to Iacoba, Richard entered the ranks of the Neapolitan

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 nobility, a traditional caste which had not been much open to Italo-Normans like the Filangieri.

Richard was made imperialis marescalcus (imperial marshal

Marshal

Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...

) of the Kingdom of Sicily

Kingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...

 by the Emperor Frederick II. He held this title as early as 1224, but in most documents thereafter until he lost the post to Tebaldo Francesco (before June 1243, probably 1242) he is titled imperialis aule marescalcus. In 1231 his brother Giordano was appointed to act as marshal in Richard's absence; Richard was then appointed Marshal of Jerusalem. In 1225 Richard joined the court of the emperor at Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

. In 1226–27 he followed the imperial court around northern Italy: from Rimini

Rimini

Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...

, to Parma

Parma

Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....

, to Borgo San Donnino, and then back to the Capitanate. From February to May 1227 he was in Sicily, at the emperor's side in Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

 and Palermo again.

Sixth Crusade and the first phase of the Lombard war

In April 1227, as part of the Sixth Crusade, Richard left for Acre with 500 knights, mostly Lombards

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, to augment the 800 already in the Holy Land

Holy Land

The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...

 under the Duke of Limburg

Duke of Limburg

The counts of Limburg rose to prominence when one of their house was appointed Duke of Lower Lorraine.Though Lorraine was soon confiscated, the ducal title was kept within the family, transferred it to the county of Limburg, which was eventually ratified by the Holy Roman Emperor...

, Henry IV

Henry IV of Limburg

Henry IV was the duke of Limburg and count of Berg from 1226 to his death. He was the son of Waleran III, count of Luxembourg and duke of Limburg, and Cunigunda, daughter of Frederick I, Duke of Lorraine....

. Richard met Frederick in the harbour of Limassol

Limassol

Limassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus, with a population of 228,000 . It is the largest city in geographical size, and the biggest municipality on the island. The city is located on Akrotiri Bay, on the island's southern coast and it is the capital of Limassol District.Limassol is the...

 in Cyprus

Kingdom of Cyprus

The Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom on the island of Cyprus in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan.-History:...

 on 21 July 1228. Richard, Odo of Montbéliard, and Hermann von Salza

Hermann von Salza

Hermann von Salza was the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239...

 were the commanders of Frederick's Crusade, since none of them were excommunicate (the emperor was). Filangieri was privy to Frederick's prior negotiations with al-Kāmil

Al-Kamil

Al-Kamil was a Kurdish Ayyubid sultan who ruled North Africa. During his tenure as sultan, the Ayyubids defeated two crusades. In a temporary agreement with the Crusaders, he ceded Jerusalem to the Christians.-Biography:He was the son of sultan al-Adil, a brother of Saladin...

, the Sultan of Egypt

Sultan of Egypt

Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generally included Sham and Hejaz, with the consequence that the...

, for the return of Jerusalem, the Holy City. It is for this reason that he punished a group of knights in the spring of 1228 for raiding Muslim territory and returned their booty. Filangieri also rode out nightly to meet secretly with envoys from al-Kāmil, which led some fellow Crusaders to write a complaint to Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...

 over Frederick's "evil" agents.

Richard was sent back in the fall of 1231 as imperial legate

Legate

Legate may refer to:*Legatus, a general officer of the ancient Roman army drawn from among the senatorial class*Papal legate, a messenger from the Holy See*Legate, a rank in the Cardassian military in the fictional Star Trek universe...

, again with a large army of mostly Lombards. When the War of the Lombards heated up over the interference of Frederick II in the affairs of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....

, it was Richard who represented the emperor and commanded the imperial troops. He was allied with the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

 and Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

. Richard was appointed as bailie to exercise the regency

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

 on behalf of Frederick, whose son Conrad II

Conrad IV of Germany

Conrad IV was king of Jerusalem , of Germany , and of Sicily .-Biography:...

 was king. His rights were generally recognised but his personal authority was much circumscribed by the Assizes

Assizes of Jerusalem

The Assizes of Jerusalem are a collection of numerous medieval legal treatises containing the law of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and Kingdom of Cyprus...

 and the Haute Cour

Haute Cour of Jerusalem

The Haute Cour was the feudal council of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the curia generalis, the curia regis, or, rarely, the parlement.-Composition of the court:...

. He made his headquarters at Tyre and he also held Jerusalem.

War of the Lombards

Frederick had initially attempted to take Cyprus by treachery, forcing the then regent, John of Ibelin, to hand over the regency of the boy king Henry I of Cyprus

Henry I of Cyprus

Henry I of Cyprus, nicknamed the Fat, aka Henry of Lusignan or Henri I le Gros de Lusignan was King of Cyprus from 1218 to 1253. He was the son of Hugh I of Cyprus and Alice of Champagne of Jerusalem. When his father Hugh I died on January 10, 1218, the 8-month-old Henry became king...

. However, when Frederick left the island, John reasserted control, and drove off the Imperial forces that attempted to re-take the island. Frederick then sent a fleet, under the command of Richard Filangieri, to the mainland, besieging John's center of power in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. The lower city surrendered under its bishop, Galeran. While the army under his brother Lothair was besieging the citadel, Richard himself went ahead and accepted the submission of Tyre, which he placed under the control of his brother Henry. Before the citadel fell the Haute Cour—to which Richard had recently presented himself as Frederick's bailie—objected to the siege because the laws of the kingdom forbade the sovereign from declaring the forfeiture of a fief without the Cour's consent, which Frederick had not sought before Filangieri assaulted Beirut. Richard ignored their concerns and, after an embassy to Frederick in Italy failed to reverse his policy, the citadel fell. Richard had shown himself beholden to none but Frederick, and this convinced the moderate party that had been instrumental in the truce of 1228 to align themselves with the Ibelines. The war was thus reignited.

In May 1232, in the first major battle of the war, Casal Imbert, Richard defeated his enemies, the Ibelin

Ibelin

Ibelin was a castle in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century , which gave its name to an important family of nobles.-The castle:...

s. In June, however, his men were so soundly defeated by an inferior force at the Battle of Agridi

Battle of Agridi

The Battle of Agridi was fought in 15 June 1232 between the forces loyal to Henry I of Cyprus and the imperial army of Frederick II, composed mostly of men from Lombardy...

 in Cyprus that his support on the island evaporated. In 1233 Filangieri sought the alliance of Bohemond V, Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli, and Hethum II of Armenia

Hethum II of Armenia

Hethum II was king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruling from 1289 to 1293, 1295 to 1296 and 1299 to 1303, while Armenia was a subject state of the Mongol Empire...

, but to no avail. He requested reinforcements from Frederick, but received none. By then only Tyre remained in imperialist control, though Acre was also nominally imperial under Odo of Montbéliard, who had received half of the divided bailiwick from Frederick in 1236. Odo also had the support of the Haute Cour.

In 1239–40 he was unable to establish contact with the Crusade of Theobald I of Navarre

Theobald I of Navarre

Theobald I , called the Troubadour, the Chansonnier, and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne from birth and King of Navarre from 1234...

. In 1241 the Hospitallers in Acre were besieged in their fortress by the Templars, who had the support of the commune

Medieval commune

Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...

. A faction of Hospitallers then allied with a faction of the bourgeoisie and conspired with Filangieri to hand the city over to his troops while the Ibelins were away. Filangieri entered the city in disguise but he and the plot were uncovered. Though escaping with his life, he was recalled to Italy by the emperor. Lothair was left in charge in Tyre. The Guelphs in Acre meanwhile had sent a request to Frederick to have Richard replaced as bailie by a man of their choosing: Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, 1st Earl of Chester , sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from other Simon de Montforts, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He led the barons' rebellion against King Henry III of England during the Second Barons' War of 1263-4, and...

.

In 1242 or 1243 Conrad declared his own majority and on 5 June the absentee monarch's regency was granted by the Haute Court to Alice

Alice of Champagne

Alice of Champagne was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and her third husband Henry II, Count of Champagne. Alice and her sister Philippa spent part of their life fighting for their father's homeland of Champagne, over another branch of their family...

, widow of Hugh I of Cyprus

Hugh I of Cyprus

Hugh I of Cyprus succeeded to the throne of Cyprus on April 1, 1205 underage upon the death of his elderly father Amalric of Lusignan, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem...

 and daughter of Isabella I of Jerusalem. Alice promptly began ruling as if queen, ignoring Conrad, who was in Italy, and ordering Richard arrested. He was shipwrecked and captured while trying to return from Italy to Tyre, leaving his brother Lothair to defend the besieged place. The city fell on 12 June, and the Ibelins seized the citadel on 7 or 10 July, with the help of Alice, whose forces arrived on 15 June.

First exile from Italy and return

Because of Richard's capture and Lothair's surrender, the entire Filangieri family fell into disgrace. Richard was eventually released and returned to Sicily, where he and his brother Henry, with Henry's son Giovanni di Sorrento, were imprisoned in Apulia by the emperor (1242/3). In his Chronicle, the south Italian Richard of San Germano

Richard of San Germano

Richard of San Germano was a notary at the monastery of Cassino from February 1186 to March 1232. He wrote a chronicle of the Mezzogiorno from the death of William II of Sicily in 1189 to 1243...

 records that Raymond VII of Toulouse

Raymond VII of Toulouse

Raymond VII of Saint-Gilles was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death. He was the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Joan of England...

 met the emperor at Melfi

Melfi

Melfi is a town and comune in the Vulture area of the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.-Geography:On a hill at the foot of Mount Vulture, Melfi is the most important town in Basilicata's Vulture, both as a tourist resort and economic centre.-Early history:Inhabited...

 in September 1242 and intervened on behalf of the defeated Filangieri. Frederick allowed Richard and his brothers to accompany the count back to Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 (1244). It is possible that Frederick's treatment of Richard and Lothair pushed another brother, Marinus Filangieri, the Archbishop of Bari, out of the imperial and into the Papal camp in the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines. It was Marinus who had enlisted the aid of Raymond in securing the release of his brothers.

Richard is recorded with Raymond in southern France in 1249, once at Toulouse and again at Milhaud

Milhaud

Milhaud is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...

. In September he was a witness to Raymond's will and attached his signature to it. In 1251, after the death of Frederick in 1250, he returned to Italy. He joined the rebellion of Naples, Capua

Capua

Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...

, and the rest of Campania against Conrad, who was now also King of Sicily. In July he was elected podestà

Podestà

Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...

of the commune of Naples, a post in which he is recorded in documents dated between 1 November 1251 and 7 October 1252. On 5 November his successor, Gallo de Orbelli, was in office (until 1253). With his experience, however, Richard was the leader of the defence of Naples for eight months while Conrad besieged it. Forced to surrender, he was exiled a second time.

Second exile and return

From 1253 to 1254 Richard, through the intervention of Pope Innocent IV

Pope Innocent IV

Pope Innocent IV , born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was pope from June 25, 1243 until his death in 1254.-Early life:...

, was lodged at Ariccia

Ariccia

Ariccia is a town and comune in the Province of Rome, central Italy. It is in the Alban Hills of the Lazio region and could be considered an extension of Rome's southeastern suburbs...

 with his nephew Henry, Archbishop-elect of Bari. Richard and Galvano Lancia, another leading nobleman of Sicily, organised a congress of Sicilian nobles at Anagni

Anagni

Anagni is an ancient town and comune in Latium, central Italy, in the hills east-southeast of Rome. It is a historical center in Ciociaria.-Geography:...

 that year, where they recognised the Pope as their overlord. In October 1254 Innocent confirmed Richard in the barony of the Terra di Lavoro

Terra di Lavoro

Terra di Lavoro is the name of a historical region of southern Italy. It corresponds roughy to the modern southern Lazio and northern Campania regions of Italy....

, which Frederick had previously conferred on him; in the county of Lettere and the castle of Gragnano, to which he had a claim through his wife; and in the lordships of Calvi

Calvi

Calvi is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica.It is the seat of the Canton of Calvi, which contains Calvi and one other commune, Lumio...

, Castellammare

Castellammare di Stabia

Castellammare di Stabia is a comune in the province of Naples, Campania region, southern Italy. It is situated on the Bay of Naples about 30 kilometers southeast of Naples, on the route to Sorrento.-History:...

, and Scafati

Scafati

Scafati is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the Campania region of southern Italy.-Geography:Scafati is situated on the river Sarno.Sotto il ponte sul fiume per entrare in paese il fiume si divide in 3 rami,1 principale e 2 secondari...

. Richard also held Satriano

Satriano

Satriano is a town and comune in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of southern Italy.-Geography:The town is bordered by Cardinale, Davoli, Gagliato, Petrizzi, San Sostene and Soverato....

 as regent for his nephew Richard and Riardo

Riardo

Riardo is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 50 km north of Naples and about 25 km northwest of Caserta. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,494 and an area of 16.6 km².Riardo borders the following municipalities:...

 as regent for another nephew, Roger.

There is a Ricardus Filangieri recorded under "3 November" in the necrology of Santa Patrizia in Naples, but whether it is this Richard or one of the numerous other Richards of the Filangieri clan is undeciphered. From February 1262 at Lettere a document reads curia nobilis viri domini Riccardi Filangerii, but this is probably a reference to Richard's eponymous son, Richard Filangieri II, sometimes called iunior. By his wife Iacoba, who died in 1271, Richard left one daughter, Isabella, who married Giacomo d'Aquino, lord of Arienzo

Arienzo

Arienzo is a town and comune in the Province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy. It is located across the Appian Way.It is connected to Naples, Benevento and Caserta by regular bus services....

 and Galluccio

Galluccio

Galluccio is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 60 km northwest of Naples and about 45 km northwest of Caserta.-History:...

. Richard was definitely dead by March 1263.