Selling Sicily

Pope Urban IV's first move to try to curtail Manfred of Sicily's imperial ambitions was to excommunicate him. This was Manfred's third excommunication, and clearly he was not bothered.Manfred had made himself King of Sicily after the rumored death of his nephew, Conradin, and refused to relinquish the claim when it turned out Conradin was alive (and demanding the title back). Urban tried to "sell" the title King of Sicily to someone he could trust. He offered it to Richard of Cornwall first.Richard of Cornwall was the second son of King John of England. Matthew Paris writes that Richard refused the title, since Sicily would have to be taken by force. According to Paris, Richard expressed this unlikelihood to the pope by saying "You might as well say, 'I will sell or give you the moon, rise up and take it'."Richard's brother, King Henry III of England, tried to get Sicily for his son Edmund Crouchback. Pope Innocent IV had already offered it for Edmund in 1254, but England was not keen…