Frederic's arrival to claim Otranto brings the dispute over Manfred's title out of private calculation and into a formal challenge at the castle gates. Through a herald speaking for the Knight of the Gigantic Sabre, Frederic demands Isabella and the principality, asserts his descent from the nearest rightful line to Alfonso the Good, and offers single combat if Manfred refuses. The encounter exposes the fragile grounds of Manfred's authority even as he tries to answer a claim he knows is well founded with ceremony, force, and negotiation.

The Claim and Its Background

The challenge is delivered first through a herald, who announces that he comes from the Knight of the Gigantic Sabre and must speak with the usurper of Otranto. The language strikes at the very basis of Manfred's rule. When the herald names him a usurper, Manfred's fear turns to anger; he sends Jerome away, orders Theodore held as a hostage for his father's obedience, and prepares to receive the messenger himself.

The herald's formal demand names Frederic, Marquis of Vicenza, as his lord. He requires Manfred to return Isabella, Frederic's daughter, whom the message says Manfred obtained through the bribery of her guardians during Frederic's absence. He also demands that Manfred surrender Otranto, describing Frederic as the nearest blood relation to Alfonso the Good, the last rightful ruler. Unless Manfred complies, the Knight challenges him to single combat. Thus the encounter joins two claims that Manfred has tried to manage together: possession of Isabella and possession of the principality.

Manfred knows the challenge is not a stranger's empty assertion. Frederic's ancestors had claimed the title of princes of Otranto after Alfonso died without issue, but Manfred's family had been powerful enough to prevent the house of Vicenza from dispossessing them. Frederic had gone to the Holy Land and was reported dead after being wounded and captured. Taking that report as an opportunity, Manfred bribed Isabella's guardians and arranged her as a bride for his son Conrad, hoping the marriage would unite the rival houses' claims. Conrad's death helped prompt Manfred to pursue the marriage himself. Now, with Frederic alive, Manfred considers seeking his consent rather than provoking him outright.

The Challenge and the Reception

Manfred tells the herald that he would first speak with Frederic before settling their differences by the sword. He promises the lord and his followers a courteous reception and safe departure, swearing that if negotiation fails, Frederic will receive satisfaction according to the laws of arms. This pledge presents Manfred as a host bound by chivalric custom, even as he privately directs his household not to reveal Isabella's flight to the Knight's retinue. His offer of hospitality is therefore also a calculated effort to control what Frederic learns and to keep the dispute from immediately becoming a fight.

The arrival is staged as a public display of Vicenza's rank and military strength. The procession includes heralds, pages, trumpets, a hundred foot guards and as many horse, followed by scarlet-and-black-clad attendants. A banner bears the arms of Vicenza and Otranto quartered together, a deliberate assertion that displeases Manfred, though he suppresses his resentment. Two armored knights accompany the principal figure, while a hundred gentlemen bear an enormous sword that appears too heavy for them. The Knight rides in full armor on a chestnut horse, his face concealed by his visor and a scarlet-and-black plume above it.

At the gate, the herald repeats the challenge. Manfred's attention fixes on the immense sword, but a sudden tempest of wind draws his gaze to the plumes of the enchanted helmet, moving as they had before. The supernatural disturbance overlays the political confrontation with a warning of Manfred's approaching fate. He nevertheless welcomes the Knight and proposes a fair field the following day, invoking the righteousness of his cause and the aid of Saint Nicholas. The scene balances his public confidence against signs that his control may not withstand either Frederic's claim or the forces already gathering around his house.

Manfred's Defense and the Limits of Negotiation

In a private chamber, Manfred answers the demand by laying out his family's account of its title. He says that he holds Otranto from his father, Don Manuel, who received it from Don Ricardo; Alfonso, he claims, died childless in the Holy Land and bequeathed his estates to Ricardo in recognition of Ricardo's service. The Knight shakes his head, and Manfred grows heated as he defends his grandfather's piety, his foundation of the adjoining church and two converts, and his family's long possession of the estate.

Manfred's argument shifts between different kinds of title without resolving their conflict. He invokes inheritance from his father and grandfather, a supposed bequest from Alfonso, his ancestors' military power, and the protection of Saint Nicholas. At the same time, he concedes that Frederic is nearer in blood and says he has agreed to put his own claim to the issue of the sword. His appeal to combat does not establish that his title is lawful; rather, it makes force the means by which a disputed title might be maintained. He also objects that the challenge would place his dignity in the hands of unknown, silent figures, revealing how much his authority depends on controlling the terms by which it is judged.

The reception and the negotiation therefore do not settle the claim. Manfred's calculated welcome cannot erase the herald's charge, and the elaborate display of Vicenza's arms makes the rival claim impossible to treat as merely private. The arrival sharpens the gap between Manfred's possession of power and his uncertain right to it, while his guarded response shows him trying to preserve both his rule and his opportunity to bargain.

Later Revelations and the Outcome

Near the end of the story, Manfred's confession overturns the account he gave the Knight. He admits that Alfonso did not die naturally: Ricardo poisoned him, and a fictitious will named Ricardo as heir. The family history Manfred had defended as a succession grounded in service, piety, and inheritance is exposed as an inheritance secured through crime. Manfred interprets the supernatural judgments that have struck his family as the price of that usurpation.

Jerome then explains how Alfonso's line survived. When Alfonso sailed for the Holy Land, a storm drove him to Sicily, where he remained wind-bound for three months and married Victoria rather than draw her into a forbidden relationship. He left her pregnant while he continued his journey; she gave birth to a daughter and, after hearing a report of Alfonso's death and Ricardo's succession, had no means to make her claim secure. That daughter later married Jerome, and Theodore's story supplies the rest of the connection. The revelation gives the succession dispute a hidden family history that Manfred's account of Alfonso's childlessness had excluded.

The consequences are formal as well as personal. After the supernatural signs and the deaths of Conrad and Matilda, Manfred accepts Theodore as the true Prince of Otranto, confesses his family's crime, and signs his abdication with Hippolita's approval. He and Hippolita enter neighbouring convents, while Frederic offers Isabella to the new prince. The arrival's demand thus anticipates a transfer of rule, but the eventual settlement rests not on Manfred's proposed combat or the contested marriage alliance: it follows the disclosure of the concealed lineage and Manfred's renunciation of the principality.