The revelation of Theodore as heir to Otranto turns a succession dispute into a family recognition. As Matilda lies near death, Theodore claims that he is a prince and sovereign of Otranto; Jerome confirms that he speaks truthfully. The disclosure resolves the conflict between Manfred’s possession of the principality and Frederic’s claim of nearer descent from Alfonso, while exposing the concealed lineage through which Theodore inherits the right Manfred must relinquish.

Background: Competing Claims to Otranto

The revelation answers a challenge first presented by Frederic’s herald. Speaking in Frederic’s name, the herald calls Manfred a usurper, demands that he return Isabella to her father and surrender Otranto, and declares Frederic the nearest living blood relative of Alfonso the Good. If Manfred refuses, the herald announces a challenge to single combat. The demand makes the principality’s title, rather than possession alone, the central issue.

Manfred answers by presenting a different basis for his rule. He says that Otranto passed to him from his father, Don Manuel, and to Manuel from Don Ricardo. According to Manfred, Alfonso died childless in the Holy Land and left his estates to Ricardo in recognition of Ricardo’s faithful service. Manfred also asserts that Isabella was contracted to his son with the consent of her legal guardians. His account thus joins inherited possession and a purported bequest to a marriage arrangement, while the herald’s challenge makes Frederic’s blood relationship to Alfonso the opposing claim.

The Disclosure at Matilda’s Death

The decisive announcement occurs when Theodore, distressed by the expectation that Matilda cannot live, asks Jerome to join their hands. Frederic objects that Theodore has no claim to the princess. Theodore answers that he has the rights of a prince and sovereign of Otranto, and says that Jerome has told him who he is. Frederic rejects the assertion, insisting that Manfred has forfeited his own claim and that there can be no other prince of Otranto but himself.

Jerome then confirms Theodore’s identity. He explains that he had not intended to disclose the secret so soon, but that events have forced the revelation. Before he can recount its history, Theodore breaks in, urging his father to unite him with Matilda. He returns to her as Isabella signals that Matilda is near death. The inheritance disclosure therefore arrives inside a scene of private grief: Theodore announces a public identity, but his attention immediately returns to the dying woman he loves.

Lineage and the Concealed Marriage

Jerome’s account traces Theodore’s claim through Alfonso. When Alfonso sailed for the Holy Land, a storm drove him to the coast of Sicily, separating his vessel from the one carrying Ricardo and his attendants. Alfonso remained wind-bound there for three months and fell in love with a young woman named Victoria. Jerome says Alfonso was too pious to lead her into forbidden relations; the two married, but Alfonso concealed the marriage because he considered it inconsistent with the vow of arms binding him. He intended to acknowledge Victoria as his lawful wife after returning from the Crusade.

Alfonso left Victoria pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter while he was away, then heard the report of his death and learned that Ricardo had succeeded him. Jerome says Victoria was friendless and helpless, and that he possesses an authentic writing concerning the marriage. Manfred declines to require the document. In his view, the recent events and the supernatural vision they have witnessed corroborate Jerome’s evidence more powerfully than written papers could.

Jerome completes the line of descent by revealing that Victoria’s daughter was given in marriage to him when she came of age. Victoria died, and Jerome kept the secret. Theodore’s identity thus rests on a chain of relationships that had remained hidden: Alfonso and Victoria’s marriage, their daughter, and that daughter’s marriage to Jerome. The narrative confirms the connection through Jerome’s testimony, while Manfred accepts the account without requiring its promised documentary proof.

From Revelation to Abdication

The disclosure changes the practical outcome of the succession dispute. After Manfred confesses that Alfonso died by poison and that Ricardo’s will declaring him heir was fictitious, he acknowledges that he does not know how Theodore can be Alfonso’s heir, yet says he does not doubt the claim. He resigns the dominions, recognizing Theodore’s title despite the remaining gaps in his own understanding. His confession recasts the family’s accumulated possession not as secure inheritance but as the consequence of Ricardo’s crime.

The morning after the company withdraws, Manfred signs his abdication with Hippolita’s approval. Manfred and Hippolita take religious habits in neighboring convents, and Frederic offers Isabella in marriage to the new prince. Theodore, however, is too overwhelmed by Matilda’s death to consider another love immediately. Only after repeated conversations with Isabella about Matilda does he accept that he may find no happiness except in Isabella’s company, where he can continue to share his grief.

Significance of the Recognition

The event distinguishes possession, written authority, kinship, and recognized legitimacy. Manfred’s account relies on the succession he inherited and the will he attributes to Alfonso; the herald advances Frederic’s closer blood claim; Jerome supplies the concealed family history that establishes Theodore’s descent. The story then makes Manfred’s acceptance and abdication the immediate political consequence of that history, even though he says he does not know how Theodore’s inheritance follows from it.

The recognition also joins a public transfer of power to a personal loss that cannot be reversed. Theodore becomes the acknowledged prince at the moment he learns Matilda is dying, and his first response is not to celebrate his new standing but to seek a marriage with her. Her death leaves his inheritance intact but alters the emotional meaning of his accession: his future with Isabella is shaped by continuing remembrance of Matilda rather than by a clean beginning.