FREDERICK III (of Aragon, King of Sicily — third son of PETER II of Aragon, b. 1272, d. between Paterno and Catania on 25 June 1337). The second to bear this name on the throne of the island, he styled himself III to emphasize his descent from the Swabian house (he was the son of Constance, daughter of Manfred). As a child he was taken to Sicily in 1283 on the eve of the “Sicilian Vespers”; when his brother James left the island’s kingdom for that of Aragon (1291), he was appointed lieutenant general. In ’93 he went to Rome with John of Procida to negotiate peace with Boniface VIII, but in vain, for that year the Pope could not sanction so grave an injury to the rights of the kings of Naples, who had been invested by the popes. The maritime republics were also hostile to him because of commercial rivalry.
Finding all Italy against him, the Sicilians on 25 March 1293 elected Frederick as their king. After alternating fortunes of defeat and victory, and with his brother James even opposing him, Frederick was able to obtain the Peace of Caltabellotta (1302), by which he was assigned Sicily for the duration of his natural life, with the title of King of Trinacria, at the Pope’s behest, while the title of King of Sicily remained with the Angevins.
When Henry VII came down into Italy and King Robert of Anjou was placed under imperial ban, Frederick assumed the title of King of Sicily and attacked Angevin lands. Mutual raids lasting until 1333 only impoverished Calabria, the Neapolitan coasts, and Sicily, which at his death he left economically and spiritually exhausted. He was buried in the cathedral of Catania.