CONRADIN OF SWABIA. - Born in the castle of Wolfstein, near Landshut (Lower Bavaria), on 25 March 1252, died in Naples on 29 October 1268. The last descendant of the Hohenstaufen, son of Conrad IV, King of Germany, and of Elizabeth of Bavaria, left an orphan of his father at the age of two, he was raised by his uncle Louis of Bavaria. After the death of King Manfred (1266), he was urged insistently by the Italian Ghibellines to come down into Italy to reconquer the Kingdom of Sicily by force of arms.

Having entrusted his German domains to the Duke of Bavaria, still very young he undertook the enterprise, thereby incurring the excommunication of the Pope. Having entered Rome, he left it on 27 July 1268 to reach the Neapolitan territory through the Abruzzo; but at Scurcola, on 23 August 1268, he was defeated by Charles of Anjou and, abandoned by his own men, he attempted as a last escape to embark at Astura near Rome, but, betrayed by Giovanni Frangipane, lord of the place, he was handed over to Charles, and, after a summary trial, he was beheaded in Naples. He was buried in the Church of the Carmine.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: F. W. Schirrmacher, Die letzten Hohenstaufen, Göttingen 1871; G. Del Giudice, Il giudizio e la condanna di C., Naples 1876; K. Hampe, Geschichte Konradins von Hohenstaufen, Innsbruck 1894; new edition updated in the bibliography, edited by H. Kömpe, Leipzig 1940.

Emma Santovito

@incollection{ec4_corradino_di_svevia, author = {Santovito, Emma}, title = {Corradino di Svevia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {630--631}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/corradino-di-svevia} }

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Conradin of Swabia

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