Charles I of Anjou

Charles I of Anjou is a decisive political force in the Decameron’s account of Sicily: his victory over Manfred transfers the island to his rule, but the conquest also sets in motion the captivity and flight of Arrighetto Capece’s family. His rise and subsequent loss of Sicily frame a story in which changes of sovereignty become private catastrophe.

Conquest of Sicily

After the death of Frederick II, Manfred was crowned King of Sicily. Arrighetto Capece, a Neapolitan gentleman who governed the island, learned that Charles I of Anjou had overcome and killed Manfred at the Battle of Benevento. Distrusting the Sicilians’ loyalty to the new ruler, Arrighetto prepared to flee rather than become the subject of his lord’s enemy. His intention became known, however, and the Sicilians seized him and many of Manfred’s friends and servants, delivering them to Charles along with possession of the island.

The episode presents Charles’s victory not only as a battlefield success but as a transfer of political authority enforced through the capture of the defeated regime’s adherents. Arrighetto’s fate gives that change a personal dimension: a governor who had held power under Manfred becomes a prisoner after the island changes hands.

Consequences for Arrighetto’s Family

The conquest reaches beyond the men captured with Arrighetto. In the turmoil, Madam Beritola did not know what had happened to her husband and feared the consequences of the political upheaval. She abandoned her possessions and fled while pregnant, taking her young son Giusfredi with her. After reaching Lipari, she gave birth to another son, Scacciato, and set out toward Naples with both children; a storm instead carried their ship to Ponza, beginning a long separation from their former life.

Charles is not shown directing these private losses himself. Rather, his defeat of Manfred and the ensuing takeover create the circumstances in which Arrighetto is captured and his family is scattered. The story’s movement from royal victory to a wife’s uncertain flight makes the human cost of the change in rule part of the conquest’s narrative significance.

Revolt and Loss of the Island

Charles’s possession of Sicily did not endure. The book’s historical note identifies a later popular rising, the Sicilian Vespers uprising, as the revolt through which Charles was expelled from the island. In the story’s account, King Pedro of Aragon raises Sicily against Charles and takes it from him; the change gives the captive Giusfredi hope that he might recover the high position his father once held.

The narrative thus places Charles within a cycle of unstable rule: he takes Sicily after defeating Manfred, but a later revolt removes him from it. His role is brief in the personal plot, yet consequential. The change of rulers separates a family, while the next change creates the possibility of recognition and restoration.