Manfred Lancia

We're going to look at the life of Manfred (1232 - 1266), who became King of Sicily. He was originally called Manfred Lancia, after his mother, Bianca Lancia. Bianca was an Italian noblewoman who was certainly the mistress of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and possible became his last wife.Matthew Paris and an Italian Franciscan named Salimbene di Adam both wrote in their histories that there was a last-minute marriage between Frederick and Bianca when Frederick was on his deathbed. When Manfred was born, however, Bianca was not married to Frederick, and so Manfred is considered an illegitimate, or "natural" son of the emperor.Frederick certainly considered Manfred his son, with all the privileges a son of the emperor should have. Frederick's will named Manfred as Prince of Taranto, the "heel" of the Italian peninsula (dark green in the illustration) which was part of the area known as the Regno (the island of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula). Frederick's son…