Vicenza is the principality whose ruling house contests Manfred’s possession of Otranto and whose marriage ties repeatedly become instruments of political settlement. Through the Marquis Frederic’s claim and Isabella’s betrothal, it stands at the center of the struggle over succession; through the later revelations about Alfonso’s secret marriage, the dispute reaches beyond rival houses to a concealed line of descent.

Political Claim and Rivalry

The Marquis of Vicenza’s daughter, Isabella, is brought to Otranto under the guardianship arrangement Manfred has secured while Frederic is absent. Manfred has contracted her marriage to his son Conrad, hoping that an alliance between the two houses will reinforce his position. The proposed marriage is therefore not simply a family arrangement: it is a means to join competing claims to Otranto. When Conrad dies, Manfred’s purpose changes, and he proposes to marry Isabella himself.

Frederic’s claim is older and, as Manfred privately recognizes, well founded. Frederic’s ancestors had styled themselves Princes of Otranto after Alfonso the Good died without issue, but Manfred’s father and grandfather retained possession because the Vicenza house lacked the power to displace them. Frederic himself had gone to the Holy Land and was reported dead after being captured. Manfred used that report to bribe Isabella’s guardians into handing her over for marriage to Conrad, intending the union to combine the houses’ claims. After Conrad’s death, the same political calculation helps explain Manfred’s attempt to take Isabella as his own bride.

Frederic’s Demand and Manfred’s Defense

Frederic’s representative arrives at Otranto with a formal challenge: Frederic demands the return of his daughter and the surrender of the principality, claiming descent nearest to Alfonso the Good. The challenge calls Manfred a usurper and threatens single combat if he refuses. Manfred does not answer by denying the strength of Frederic’s hereditary case. Instead, he points to the history of possession: his family has held Otranto across generations, and he argues that his grandfather Ricardo received it from Alfonso by bequest in recognition of faithful service.

Manfred’s account invokes both inherited authority and religious favor. He praises Ricardo’s piety and the church and religious foundations attributed to him, insisting that Ricardo held the estate by his sword and by Saint Nicholas’s favor. Yet Manfred also acknowledges that Frederic is nearer in blood to Alfonso. He presents his willingness to submit the dispute to combat as a defense of his own honor, while his actions reveal the practical purpose of his hospitality: he invites Frederic’s party into the castle and instructs his household not to disclose that Isabella has fled. His courteous promises coexist with an effort to control what Frederic learns and to preserve room for negotiation.

Marriage as Political Settlement

When Manfred speaks privately with Frederic’s knights, he recasts the crisis as a problem of public welfare. He says that Conrad’s death had made him consider surrendering his dominions and withdrawing from public life, but claims uncertainty over who could succeed him without harming Otranto’s people. He presents Frederic as the only known relative of Alfonso, yet raises the possibility that Frederic might prefer Vicenza to the smaller principality. In that account, Manfred portrays his own rule as protective and his people as beloved, even as he acknowledges the rival’s superior blood claim.

His proposed solution is another marriage: Manfred suggests taking Isabella as his wife to extinguish the feud between the houses. This follows his earlier attempt to marry her after Conrad’s death and reveals how persistently he treats her marriage as a means of securing political continuity. Hippolita, by contrast, proposes that Matilda marry Frederic. She believes the events of the preceding days indicate that Otranto is destined to pass from Manfred’s hands, and hopes a union between Matilda and Frederic can avert the destruction of their household by reconciling the rival families. The proposal is accepted for discussion, but the revelation of Isabella’s flight and the unfolding supernatural judgments prevent marriage from resolving the succession conflict in this way.

The Hidden Line and the Settlement

The final account overturns the apparent opposition between the Otranto and Vicenza claims. Jerome explains that Alfonso, while delayed in Sicily on his way to the Holy Land, married Victoria and left her pregnant when he departed. Their daughter was later given in marriage to Jerome; she became the mother of Theodore. The connection makes Theodore Alfonso’s descendant and heir, despite the public history in which Alfonso was believed to have died childless. Frederic’s claim has exposed the false foundations of Manfred’s rule, but the final inheritance passes not to Frederic: it belongs to Theodore through the concealed marriage.

After the revelation and the supernatural appearance affirming Theodore’s princely identity, Manfred abdicates and enters religious life with Hippolita. Frederic offers Isabella in marriage to Theodore, and Hippolita supports the offer, but Theodore’s grief for Matilda prevents an immediate new attachment. He eventually accepts that he can find happiness in Isabella’s company while continuing to mourn Matilda. Vicenza’s connection to Otranto thus ends not in Frederic’s accession, but in the recognition of a different hereditary line and in a marriage that joins Isabella to the newly established prince.