Richard Filangieri

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Richard (Riccardo) Filangieri († between 1254 and 1263) was a follower of the Roman-German Emperor and King of Sicily, Friedrich II. Von Hohenstaufen . As its governor, he also temporarily ruled the Kingdom of Jerusalem . His brothers were Archbishop Marinus von Bari , Lothar and Heinrich.

The crusade of Emperor Frederick II (1228–1229)

Richard Filangieri held the post of marshal at the court of the emperor in Sicily from 1224. On the occasion of the emperor's crusade , in April 1228, he advanced to the holy land with five hundred knights . The emperor followed him with the main army in June, which Filangieri rejoined on July 21 in Limassol, Cyprus . After arriving in Akkon , Filangieri, Hermann von Salza and Odo von Montbéliard took over the formal supreme command of the crusader army, as this could not be commanded by a leader who was under the ecclesiastical ban. After Jerusalem was won back to Christianity by treaty, Filangieri returned to Brindisi in June 1229 in the imperial entourage .

On his departure from the Holy Land, Emperor Frederick II left behind appointed governors who were to rule in his name both in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and in the Kingdom of Cyprus , the king of which was underage. For the local barons Outremers , this represented a violation of their traditional feudal legal system for several reasons. Initially, the rightful King of Jerusalem was the still underage Conrad , the son of Queen Isabella II, who died young, and the emperor. He, in turn, saw his rule in Outremer legitimized in the guardianship of his son, which was a not undisputed argument among the barons. The emperor was in ecclesiastical excommunication during his crusade and was crowned by his followers in Jerusalem in 1229. This process indicated a rule in one's own name, disregarding the rights of King Conrad. Due to its circumstances, this coronation was neither recognized by the barons, the Latin Patriarchate, nor by the papal curia in Rome as a legitimation of any sovereign rights.

These divergences in his relationship to the ruling circles of the Christian Outremer are ignored by Emperor Friedrich II, just as he ignored the authority of the barons in their council, the Haute Cour . Consequently, the contradictions that had built up broke out after the emperor's departure. The baronial party, led by the influential John (the Old) of Ibelin , who had extensive possessions on both Cyprus and the mainland, rose instantly against the imperial regiment. At the end of 1229, the Imperial Regency Council was expelled from Cyprus and the reign of the underage King Henry I was transferred to John of Ibelin.

Governor of Jerusalem

In the summer of 1231 Filangieri was appointed by the emperor to be his Bailli for Jerusalem, in order to put things in order there. Equipped with a fleet, accompanied by his brothers Lothar and Heinrich, he first sailed to Cyprus, where he failed to land due to the island defense organized by Johann von Ibelin. Then he turned against the mainland, where he was first granted the entry into Tire . He then immediately took up the siege of Beirut , which belonged to the possessions of John of Ibelin. He ignored the Haute Cour's objection, according to which a fief could only be withdrawn with his consent, with which he now made enemies of the majority of the barons of the mainland, including the previously imperial-minded Odo von Montbeliard and Balian von Sidon . Ultimately Filangieri was his regiment only to the German knights and Johanniter support with Tire as a main base while the barons, the Templars , the Latin Patriarchate and the municipality of Acre had become enemies.

First Filangieri was on May 2, 1232 in the Casal Imbert a victory over the barons under John of Ibelin win, but he failed on June 15, again with an invasion in Cyprus, when he spoke of John of Ibelin in the battle of agridi was beaten . He was able to withstand a siege in Kyrenia until April 1233, then fled to Tire when the castle fell. Cyprus was finally lost to the imperial cause. On the mainland, too, the struggle largely came to a standstill, Filangieri's sphere of influence was in fact limited to Tire and Jerusalem, while almost all other Christian territories belonged to the baronial opposition based in Acre. Mediation efforts by the Pope and Grand Master Hermann von Salza were in vain, as neither side was prepared to compromise. Although old Johann von Ibelin died in 1236, his sons held his leadership position among the barons on an equal footing. In 1239, the armistice negotiated by Emperor Friedrich II with the Ayyubids expired , which initially had no consequences, as the sons of Sultan al-Kamil fought one another. In September 1239 the crusade of King Theobald of Navarre (crusade of the barons) reached the holy land, but Falingieri could not exert any influence, as Theobald turned to the barons in Acre.

After the crusade was over, the decision to rule was paved in 1241 when the Templars, in association with the commune, besieged the Johanniter in their city fort in Acre . Filangieri saw the opportunity to manage the capture of Acre at the same time as relief for the Johanniter, but failed because of the strong city defense. Shortly after this defeat, Filangieri was ordered back to Italy by the emperor, but he left his brother Lothar behind as commandant of Tire. On his departure, however, he was shipwrecked on the coast of Palestine in strong waves and was taken prisoner by the barons. In the spring of 1242 the Emperor appointed Thomas Aquinas to be his new governor in Outremer, while Filangieri was sent back to his court in chains.

Shortly afterwards, the young King Konrad reached the age of majority. At a council of the Haute Cour in Acre on June 5, 1243, the barons therefore declared every reign appointed by the emperor to be illegitimate. And since they could not take the feudal oath Konrad because he did not appear personally in his kingdom, the future reign should be determined from the ranks of the Haute Cour. He agreed on the Cypriot king widow Alice of Champagne as the new regent, who was herself a daughter of Queen Isabella I and the closest relative of King Konrad. Then the Ibelins took up the siege of Tire, which Lothar Filangieri had to give up in July 1243. Thomas Aquinas left for Italy without having achieved anything.

This effectively ended the rule of the Hohenstaufen in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, although Konrad and after him his son Konradin continued to be the nominal kings of the country. The government was now exercised by the barons of the country on their behalf until the last Staufer died in 1268.

Punishment, exile and changing sides

For his failure, Filangieri and his family members fell out of favor with Emperor Friedrich II. He spent the next few years in a dungeon until he was released in September 1242 after a petition from Count Raimund VII of Toulouse . On imperial orders, Filangieri and his brother Lothar had to follow the counts to Toulouse in 1244 , where they lived in exile for the next few years. In 1249 he was one of the written witnesses to Count Raimund's will.

Filangieri was only able to return to southern Italy in 1251 after the emperor's death. He now placed himself at the head of the anti-Staufer party (Guelphs) of Naples , where he officiated from November 1251 to October 1252 as Podestà . After the city fell under the control of King Conrad in November 1252, he had to leave the kingdom again. This time he went into the service of the Pope and allied himself with other barons of Sicily who had renounced the Hohenstaufen.

His further fate is unclear, but Filangieri had died by 1263 at the latest.

literature

predecessor Office successor
Balian of Sidon Regent of Jerusalem
(restricted to Tire)
1231–1242 		Thomas Aquinas
personal data
SURNAME Richard Filangieri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riccardo Filangieri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Imperial Marshal of Sicily, henchman of Emperor Frederick II, governor of Jerusalem
DATE OF BIRTH before 1224
DATE OF DEATH between 1254 and 1263