Richard, count of Acerra (died 30 November 1196 [1] ) was an Italo-Norman nobleman, grandson of Robert of Medania,[ citation needed ] a Frenchman of Anjou.[ citation needed ] Brother of Sibylla, queen of Tancred of Sicily, Richard was the chief peninsular supporter of his brother-in-law during his claim for the throne in 1189.
Richard was the co-commander of the army attached to Tancred's fleet in 1185. They captured Durazzo from the Byzantine Empire without a struggle. The city had fully surrendered by June 24. [2] Richard then led his army on a march across the Balkan peninsula and by August 6 he had begun his Siege of Thessalonica. On August 24 Thessalonika fell to Richard's armies in its turn. [3] But Richard was defeated and captured at Battle of Demetritzes.
In 1190, Richard was charged with keeping the German supporters of Roger of Andria out of Apulia. Richard secured all Apulia and the Terra di Lavoro. Richard then "raised a great army of Romans and men from Campania and the Regno to attack the Capuans and Aversans. [4] He invaded the region of Monte Cassino, but at that time the German marshal Henry Testa invaded Apulia and joined with Roger of Andria. Richard fortified Ariano against them. They had much success until the German troops left. Richard then invited Roger to a meeting and treacherously imprisoned him and had him executed soon after. Richard finally turned to Capua at that junction and the city fearfully surrendered without a siege.
Later, when the Emperor Henry VI, the only remaining claimant against Tancred, invaded the Terra di Lavoro, Richard took refuge in Naples. From May to August 1191, Henry invested the city with a siege, and Richard was wounded. When Henry was forced by illness to retire north of the Alps, Richard left Naples and pounced on Capua, where he massacred the Germans left there under Conrad Muscaincervello. Richard then besieged Roger of Molise in Venafro, then San Germano (now renamed Cassino), and finally the monastery of Monte Cassino itself. Those cities had surrendered to Henry resubmitted to Tancred, among them the city of Salerno surrendered Empress Constance, who had been entrusted to them by Henry, to Tancred. By then, Tancred's victory was secure. (Tancred was forced to release Constance in 1192.)
When Tancred died in 1194, Henry quickly marched down the peninsula and had himself crowned in Palermo. Richard "abandoned Campania and Burgentia, the fortresses which he was [still] holding," [5] and tried to flee. He was betrayed (fittingly) by a monk and turned over to the Diepold von Schweinspeunt, who threw him in prison. When, in 1196, Henry arrived in the south, Richard was turned over to him. As Richard of San Germano writes:
He held a general court in Capua, at which he ordered that the count first be drawn behind a horse through the squares of Capua, and then hanged alive head downwards. The latter was still alive after two days when a certain German jester called Leather-Bag [Follis], hoping to please the emperor, tied a large stone to his neck and shamefully put him to death. [5]
Diepold was given the county of Acerra by Henry.
It was also said that Henry hanged Richard in revenge of the capture of Constance.
Tancred was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce. He inherited the title "Count of Lecce" from his grandfather and is consequently often referred to as Tancred of Lecce. Due to his short stature and unhandsome visage, he was mocked by his critics as "The Monkey King".
William I, called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own in 1166. He was the fourth son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile.
Margaritus of Brindisi, called "the new Neptune", was the last great ammiratus ammiratorum of the Kingdom of Sicily. Following in the footsteps of Christodulus, George of Antioch, and Maio of Bari, Margaritus commanded the kingdom's fleets during the reigns of William II (1166–1189) and Tancred (1189–1194). He probably began as a Greek pirate and gradually rose to the rank of privateer before becoming a permanent admiral of the navy. In 1185, he became the first count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos. In 1192, he became the first Count of Malta. He also held the titles of Prince of Taranto and Duke of Durazzo.
Roger, count of Andria and Great Chamberlain of Sicily, was a claimant for the Sicilian throne after the death of William II in 1189. He is claimed by some to have been a great-grandson of Drogo of Hauteville, but this cannot be proven.
Henry of Kalden was a ministerialis in the service of the German kings Henry VI, Philip, Otto IV, and Frederick II.
Walter Ophamil or Offamil, italianised as Gualtiero Offamiglio or Offamilio from Latin Ophamilius, was the archdeacon of Cefalù, dean of Agrigento, and archbishop of Palermo (1168–1191), called "il primo ministro", the first minister of the crown. He came to Sicily with Peter of Blois and Stephen du Perche at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily and Margaret. His mother was Bona, a patron of the Abbey of Cluny and a devota et fidelis nostra of the king in 1172. His father is unknown. From his name he was long thought to be an Englishman but this interpretation is now rejected in favour of ophamilius referring to Walter as William II's protofamiliaris, the senior confidant of the king in his royal household, the familiaris regis.
Tancred of Conversano, the youngest son of Geoffrey, Count of Conversano, became the count of Brindisi on his father's death in 1100.
Sibylla of Acerra (1153–1205) was Queen of Sicily as the wife of King Tancred. After Tancred's death, she was regent in 1194 for their son, King William III. She was the sister of Count Richard of Acerra.
The Hauteville was a Norman family originally of seigneurial rank from the Cotentin. The Hautevilles rose to prominence through their part in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. By 1130, one of their members, Roger II, was made the first King of Sicily. His male-line descendants ruled Sicily until 1194. Some Italian Hautevilles took part in the First Crusade and the founding of the Principality of Antioch (1098).
Dipold, known in German as Diepoldvon Schweinspünt, was a German ministerialis who was raised to the Duchy of Spoleto in 1209. Of Bavarian origin, he was a reputed younger son of Berthold II of Vohburg and Adelaide of Ballenstedt. He was originally a vassal of the count of Lechsgemünd. His career in the Mezzogiorno was marked by continual raids and sieges, battles, and sacks recounted in exhaustive detail by Richard of San Germano, a monk of the abbey whose lands were especially hard hit.
Walter of Palear was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily under Queen Constance and the Emperor Henry VI. He was also the bishop of Troia (1189–1208) and later bishop of Catania.
Richard of San Germano was a notary in San Germano in the Latin Valley not far from the monastery of Monte Cassino between February 1186 and March 1232. He wrote a chronicle of the Mezzogiorno from the death of William II of Sicily in 1189 to 1243. It is the fullest source of information on the Hohenstaufen in Italy.
Henry VI, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
Robert of Lauro was the Count of Caserta, a powerful nobleman and administrator in the Kingdom of Sicily, "effectively the king's viceroy on the mainland" between 1171 and his death. He was a close colleague of Count Tancred of Lecce, the future king. His influence helped his cousin Roger become Archbishop of Benevento (1179–1225).
The Annales Ceccanenses, also called the Chronicon Ceccanense or Chronicon Fossae Novae, is a chronicle of universal history from the birth of Jesus down to 1218. It was begun in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century by an anonymous monk of Fossanova Abbey, near Ceccano. It is partially dependent on the Annales Cavenses and Annales Casinenses, and contains no original material prior to the year 1120. After that, however, it is a valuable source, especially for the history of the Papacy.
Jordan Lupin was the first count of Bovino in the Norman kingdom of Sicily. He played a major role in the final years of Norman rule and first years of the Staufer dynasty. Twice he was involved in opposing crusader armies passing through Sicily. In the second instance, he led a revolt, apparently in the hope of seizing the throne. He was successful in attracting significant support, and was even crowned anti-king, but was ultimately captured and executed.
The siege of Naples was a siege in 1191 during the expedition of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor aiming to conquer the Kingdom of Sicily in name of the claim of his wife Empress Constance. It lasted three months before Henry abandoned his expedition, after suffering a heavy loss due to disease. After his retreat, the Sicilians set a counterattack that almost reconquered his conquests and captured Empress Constance. It was particularly rare in the history of war that an empress was captured in an imperial offensive campaign.
Thomas I of Aquino, usually known as Thomas of Aquino, was Count of Acerra from 1220 and a follower of Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, Frederick II. The son of Adenolfo d'Aquino, Thomas came from a noble family from Aquino which included the famous theologian Thomas Aquinas.
The War of the Keys (1228–1230) was the first military conflict between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Papacy. Fighting took place in central and southern Italy. The Papacy made strong gains at first, securing the Papal States and invading the Kingdom of Sicily, while Frederick was away on the Sixth Crusade. Upon his return, he defeated the papal forces, forcing Pope Gregory IX to begin peace talks. After drawn-out negotiations, the treaty of San Germano terminated the conflict with no territorial changes.
Henry of Morra was a nobleman, judicial official and sometime regent of the Kingdom of Sicily, which at the time covered both the island of Sicily and the mainland southern Italy. As master justiciar of the Magna Curia from 1223 until his death, he was the most prominent official in the Sicilian court of Frederick II, King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor.
