Manfred’s confession and renunciation bring the succession crisis in Otranto to its resolution: faced with Alfonso’s supernatural declaration that Theodore is the true heir, Manfred admits that his family’s rule rests on Ricardo’s poisoning of Alfonso and a fabricated will, then gives up the principality. His public surrender turns a disputed claim into an acknowledged usurpation and ends his rule.

Causes and Background

The legitimacy of Manfred’s rule had been contested before the final confession. A herald speaking for the Knight of the Gigantic Sabre demanded that Manfred return Isabella to her father, Frederic, and surrender Otranto, which the herald said Frederic inherited as the nearest blood relation to Alfonso the Good. The challenge also accused Manfred of having gained Isabella through her guardians during Frederic’s absence. Manfred knew the Vicenza claim was well founded, though he had defended his own title by invoking his father’s and grandfather’s succession and by arguing that Ricardo received the estate from Alfonso.

In his account of that inheritance, Manfred said Alfonso had died childless in the Holy Land and bequeathed his estates to Ricardo in recognition of Ricardo’s service. He also cited Ricardo’s reputation for piety, his foundation of the adjoining church and two convents, and the support of Saint Nicholas. Yet Manfred’s account could not settle the claim: the stranger’s rejection of it and the Church’s challenge to Manfred’s conduct exposed the difference between a family’s explanation of its power and a title established by rightful descent.

The Revelation and Confession

The decisive reversal follows Matilda’s death. When Manfred meets the grieving company in the castle court, a clap of thunder and the sound of supernatural armor accompany the appearance of Alfonso’s immense form among the ruins. The vision identifies Theodore as Alfonso’s true heir, then ascends toward heaven with Saint Nicholas. The assembled witnesses fall prostrate, and Hippolita urges Manfred to recognize that his family’s rule has ended.

Manfred responds by accepting that his crimes have brought judgment upon his house. He confesses that Alfonso did not die naturally: Ricardo, Manfred’s grandfather and Alfonso’s chamberlain, poisoned him, and a fictitious will made Ricardo heir. Manfred had previously praised Ricardo’s devotion and defended the inheritance he left to his descendants; his confession now overturns that defense. The family’s long possession of Otranto, and the authority Manfred had asserted as sovereign, could not make the original seizure lawful.

Manfred also connects Ricardo’s crime to the prophecy that had shadowed the dynasty. He recounts that a storm overtook Ricardo, who, haunted by guilt, vowed to found a church and two convents if he survived to reach Otranto. Saint Nicholas appeared to him in a dream and promised that Ricardo’s descendants would reign until the rightful owner grew too large to inhabit the castle, for as long as male heirs of Ricardo’s line remained. Manfred interprets the deaths and supernatural events as the fulfillment of this judgment: neither male nor female descendants remain except himself, and he accepts that the prophecy no longer sustains his rule.

The Heir and the Renunciation

Jerome supplies the family history that explains Theodore’s claim. Alfonso had been driven to Sicily by a storm while sailing for the Holy Land and remained there for three months. He married Victoria, then left her pregnant when he resumed his journey. Victoria gave birth to a daughter; that daughter later married Jerome, making Theodore Alfonso’s descendant. Jerome says he had kept this history secret, while Theodore’s own account had already supplied the rest. Manfred accepts the explanation alongside the vision, saying that the supernatural revelation confirms Jerome’s evidence beyond written documents.

The resolution is enacted the following morning. With Hippolita’s approval, Manfred signs his abdication of the principality, and both he and Hippolita take religious habits in neighboring convents. The transfer follows both the revealed identity of the heir and Manfred’s admission that his own authority descends from Ricardo’s crime. What had been defended as inheritance and maintained by possession is relinquished in recognition of a rightful successor.

Consequences and Significance

Manfred frames the confession as an act of self-judgment and warns that his history should caution future tyrants. The fate of his children—Conrad dead and Matilda lost—makes the political reversal personal as well as dynastic, though his confession does not undo those losses. Instead, the abdication marks the end of his family’s rule and his withdrawal with Hippolita from political life.

Frederic offers Isabella to Theodore after the transfer, and Hippolita supports the match because of her affection for Isabella. Theodore is initially too grief-stricken over Matilda to consider another love; only after repeated conversations with Isabella about Matilda does he accept that he can find happiness in Isabella’s company while continuing to remember Matilda. The succession thus ends not with Manfred’s proposed marriage or his defense of inherited power, but with Theodore recognized as Alfonso’s heir and a new union considered under the restored line.