Thomas I of Aquino

Thomas von Aquino (Italian: Tommaso d'Aquino ; † February 27, 1251 ) was a count of Acerra and a follower of the emperor and king of Sicily, Friedrich II. Von Hohenstaufen . As the son of an Adendolfo, he came from a noble family from Aquino , which included the famous theologian Thomas Aquinas .

Life

Thomas was a supporter of the young King Friedrich from an early age and fought against Emperor Otto IV, who invaded southern Italy in 1210. He maintained his loyalty during Frederick's first absence in Germany and was appointed Count of Acerra after his return and coronation in 1220, where Diepold von Schweinspeunt had previously been expelled, and his cousin Landulf von Aquino (the father of the church scholar Thomas) was appointed legal advisor of Terra di Lavoro. On the subsequent court day in Capua , Thomas was entrusted with fighting the rebellious Count of Molise , Thomas of Celano, Count of Molise . Until spring 1221 he was able to take Bojano and Roccamandolfi . In January 1221 he was finally appointed captain and chief justice, i.e. the emperor's deputy, in Apulia and the Terra di Lavoro.

In his new offices, Thomas immediately came into conflict with the Pope when he demanded fees and taxes for the imperial treasury from the city of Benevento in accordance with a strict implementation of the resolutions of Capua , which provided for a revocation of privileges . Benevento was a papal enclave in Regnum Sicily, but Emperor Frederick II did not renew one of the city's privileges from 1220, which legitimized Thomas' approach. However, personal feelings of revenge may also have played a role here, as Thomas was once held captive in Benevento for several weeks in 1213. In May 1221 Pope Honorius III turned himself off . personally in this matter and successfully urged the emperor to respect Benevent's special status as papal property.

After this affair, Thomas resumed the fight against the Count of Molise, which he was able to include in his hometown of Celano in the spring of 1222 . However, the fortifications of the city were strong enough to withstand months of siege, which is why the emperor had to enter into a compromise peace with the Count of Molise in 1223. But after Count Thomas did not keep his contractual terms, he could be banished from the Regnum Sicily; Celano was then handed over to the administration of Landulf von Aquino.

In July 1227 Thomas and Hermann von Salza led an advance command of the imperial crusade to the holy land . There he appeared primarily as a diplomat to the Egyptian Sultan al-Kamil , whom he informed of the emperor's imminent arrival. In the spring of 1228 he wrote a letter to the imperial court, reporting on the death of al-Mu'azzam , which prompted the emperor, who has meanwhile been banished by the Pope, to set out for the Orient. In July 1228 Thomas rejoined the imperial retinue in Limassol, Cyprus , and took part in the persecution of John of Ibelin , who rejected the emperor's reign in the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Together with Balian of Sidon , he was reappointed diplomatic mediator with Sultan al-Kamil, whom he visited several times in Nablus and Gaza . In doing so, Thomas developed a similarly close relationship of trust with the sultan as his diplomat Fachr ad-Din Yusuf achieved with the emperor. This favored a mutual agreement between the emperor and the sultan that on February 18, 1229 contractually deepened and thus Jerusalem could be won back to Christianity without a fight. Through his mediation work, Thomas was also able to win the Sultan of Syria, al-Aschraf , to sign a contract.

After returning to Italy in August 1229, Thomas was entrusted with the submission of Capua, which had been taken by papal troops during the absence of Emperor Frederick. On the court day of Melfi in 1231 he was appointed regent of the Sicilian kingdom ( Capitaneus regni ) for the second absence of the emperor in northern Italy. There he followed him himself in 1233, where he took over the rectorate of Cremona with the consent of the local population. When the Emperor set out for Germany a second time in 1235, Thomas was accepted into the Regency Council for Sicily in Fano .

In 1242 Thomas was sent a second time to the holy land to act there as deputy of the emperor and from April 1243 for the coming of age Conrad , the rightful king of Jerusalem. In doing so, however, he was faced with the same fronde of the Barone Outremers under the leadership of the Ibelin, on which his deposed predecessor Richard Filangieri had failed. At a general council held in Acre on June 5, 1243 , the barons and prelates of the kingdom approved the position of the legist Philip of Novara , according to which they could not take a feudal oath to the king as long as he did not appear in person in his kingdom. As a result, a regency government established by him could not be recognized as legitimate, whereupon the council installed the queen widow Alice of Cyprus and her husband in the reign. Thomas then traveled back to Italy and only a little later the Barons Outremers took the port city of Tire , the last base of the Hohenstaufen rule in the holy land, which ended there.

family

From his marriage to a woman whose name was unknown, Thomas Aquinas had two sons, Adenolfo and Ciacopo. The oldest and heir, Adenolfo, died around 1242, after which Thomas's grandson, Thomas II († 1273), was able to succeed as Count of Acerra.

literature

• Wolfgang Stürner : Friedrich II. 1194-1250. 3rd edition in one volume, bibliographically completely updated and expanded to include a foreword and documentation with additional information. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-534-23040-2 .