Charles the Old

Charles the Old is the central figure in a story about the difficult distinction between conquering others and governing oneself. Though victorious in war and powerful enough to take what he desires, he ultimately refuses to turn his royal authority against a gentleman who has trusted and hospitably received him. His restraint becomes the story’s decisive proof of magnanimity: rather than seize the two young women who have captured his attention, he arranges their marriages and leaves them their honour intact.

Identity and Historical Setting

The story identifies Charles the Old as Charles the Old or First, whose victory over Manfred expelled the Ghibellines from Florence and enabled the Guelphs to return. It presents him as a king whose military success has brought him into a newly gained kingdom, where he remains surrounded by grave affairs and potential dangers. That political setting matters when his desire takes hold: private appetite threatens not only a household’s welfare but also the honour and authority expected of a ruler.

A gentleman named Neri degli Uberti, leaving Florence with his household and considerable money after the political upheaval, seeks refuge under Charles’s protection. He settles at Castellamare di Stabia, where he buys an estate and builds a comfortable house with a garden. Water runs through the garden to a clear fishpond stocked with fish. Charles, resting at Castellamare during the hot season, hears of the garden’s beauty and asks to dine there privately with four companions. Although Neri belongs to the opposing political party, Charles reasons that this makes it all the more important to treat him familiarly.

Hospitality and the King’s Desire

Neri welcomes the king with magnificent preparations. At tables beside the fishpond, Charles sits between Guy de Montfort and Neri; the remaining companions serve according to the host’s arrangements. The food and wine are choice, and the meal proceeds without disturbance. Charles praises the household’s hospitality. The gathering also brings him into the presence of Neri’s daughters, Ginevra the Fair and Isotta the Blonde, whose beauty and grace impress him. Their singing deepens the impression: Charles listens with rapture, and his fascination with Ginevra grows so strong that he continues to seek occasions to visit Neri’s garden.

Charles’s attraction extends to Isotta because she resembles her sister, but Ginevra is the object of his desire. He conceals his passion while returning to the garden under other pretexts and maintaining close relations with Neri. Eventually, unable to endure the desire and seeing no other way to satisfy it, he tells Guy de Montfort that he intends to take both young women from their father. The proposed act would convert the trust Neri has shown him into an opportunity for coercion: Neri has welcomed the king and displayed his daughters in confidence, believing himself to be dealing with a sovereign rather than a predator.

Counsel and Self-Mastery

Guy de Montfort answers not as a flatterer but as an honourable counsellor. He reminds Charles that the king is occupied with securing a recently acquired kingdom among people he does not know, and argues that yielding to an infatuation is unworthy of a magnanimous ruler. He also points out the particular betrayal involved: Neri has honoured Charles beyond his means and trusted him with his household. To take the daughters would repay hospitality with dishonour. Guy further invokes the political example of Manfred, whose violence against women had helped open the way for Charles’s entry into the kingdom. Repeating such conduct would stain the very victory Charles has gained.

The rebuke changes the course of the story. Charles recognizes the truth of Guy’s words and acknowledges that an enemy, however formidable, is easier for a well-trained warrior to overcome than his own appetites. He promises to demonstrate through action that he can master himself. His struggle is not represented as effortless: the desire remains painful, and abandoning the hope of possessing Ginevra brings him profound chagrin. Yet the measure of his kingship becomes his capacity to accept that cost rather than make Neri and his daughters bear it.

Resolution and Narrative Significance

After returning to Naples, Charles chooses a course that both removes the occasion for wrongdoing and repays Neri’s hospitality. With Neri’s agreement, he dowered the two young women magnificently and arranged their marriages as though they were his own: Ginevra the Fair to Maffeo da Palizzi, and Isotta the Blonde to Guglielmo della Magna. Both men are described as noble cavaliers and great barons. Charles gives the women in marriage with deep personal regret, then goes to Apulia. There, through continual exertions, he disciplines his desire until he is free of it for the rest of his life.

The story does not treat the marriages as a small courtesy. Its narrator insists that their significance lies in the fact that Charles is an enamoured king who gives another man the woman he most wants, without taking any part of the love he covets. His generosity thus consists not merely in wealth or royal favour but in renouncing the power to appropriate. The episode, told by Fiammetta as the sixth story of the tenth day, turns a debate about generosity into an account of self-command. Charles’s victory over Manfred establishes his public stature; refusing to betray Neri establishes the moral stature the story considers greater.