Chinea, Question of the

CHINEA, QUESTION of the. - The c. is the name used to designate the horse specially trained to amble. Carlo d'Angiò undertook to pay each year, for the feast of the Apostles, in addition to a sum of money as tribute (a sum that varied over the following centuries), also a c.; and this on the occasion when Clemente IV invested him with the kingdom of Naples, which he was to conquer against Manfredi (29 May 1265). Tanucci (v.) who, a tenacious advocate of a jurisdictionalist policy, in 1776 refused to allow the offering of the c. to continue; the practice, however, was resumed the following year by Ferdinando IV. A long and complicated diplomatic conflict between the Holy See and the kingdom arose in 1783, when the king of Naples refused to submit to the ancient tradition. Only in 1855 did Pio IX officially exempt King Ferdinando II from the obligation of the c. The legal nature of the prestation was disputed during the 18th and 19th centuries; according to some, it was a simple attestation of the king's devotion; according to Luigi dei Medici (who adopted Giannone's view), it was an act of recognition of a feudal nature. Such recognition had already caused disputes during Aragonese rule and also in the 16th century.