Siege of Naples (1191)

The Siege of Naples was a siege in 1191 during the expedition of Emperor Henry VI aiming to conquer Kingdom of Sicily. It lasted three months before Henry withdrew.

Background
William II, King of Sicily had no children and he named his aunt Princess Constance, his last legitimate heir, and her husband Henry eldest living son of Emperor Frederick I, as his heirs. However, upon the death of William in 1189, Norman nobles did not want to be ruled by German, so they elected Tancred, Count of Lecce illegitimate cousin of William as their new king, who was recognized by Pope Clement III. Another candidate for the throne Roger of Andria rose in favor of Constance and Henry, but was executed in 1190.

On April 1191 Henry and Constance were crowned at Rome by Pope Celestine III as emperor and empress, and they set an expedition to forcefully take the Sicilian throne from Tancred with the support of the loyal Pisa fleet. By the same month Richard I of England and Philip II of France denied to aid Tancred and went on Crusade.

The northern towns of Sicily opened their gates to Henry, including the earliest Norman strongholds Capua and Aversa.

Siege
On May the German army reached the wealthy and powerful Naples, where Henry VI met his first resistance in this campaign by its defender Aligerno Cottone and Richard of Acerra brother-in-law of Tancred.

During the siege Salerno, a main capital of Sicily, sent word ahead that Henry was welcome and invited Constance to stay in her father Roger II, King of Sicily's old palace to escape the summer heat, and take treatment from doctors for her infirm health. Nicholas of Ajello, Archbishop of Salerno fled to Naples. When Richard was injured, Nicholas took up the defense of Naples. Margaritus of Brindisi also came to its aid and harassed the Pisan navy and nearly destroyed the late-arriving Genoese contingent, thus keeping the harbor approaches open. The citizens of Naples put up a heroic defense that even impressed Henry.

After a siege of three months the German army suffered from heat, malaria and other epidemics and supply shortages. Conrad II, Duke of Bohemia and Philip I, Archbishop of Cologne died of disease during the siege, and Emperor Henry VI also fell ill. Henry of Welf, who was also participating in the siege of Naples, deserted to Germany and falsely claimed that the emperor had died and tried to underline his own abilities as a possible successor. Pope Celestine III also backed Henry the Lion father of Henry of Welf. Although Henry VI recovered, he ordered to lift the siege of Naples on August 24, with Constance left with a small garrison at Salerno as a sign that he might return to Sicily, while posting other imperial garrisons in all the most important towns and cities.

Only about a tenth of the German army evaded death. But Henry still held Monte Cassino.

Aftermath
The Sicilian army quickly set a counterattack on the German army and recovered their territory; Richard left Naples and pounced on Capua, where he massacred the Germans left there under Conrad of Lützelhard, and then besieged Roger of Molise in Venafro, then San Germano (now renamed Cassino), and finally the monastery of Monte Cassino itself. The cities that had surrendered to German resubmitted to Tancred to regain his favor. Among them was Salerno, whose populace acted against Constance upon receiving letters from Nicholas before stopped by Sicilian army led by Elia di Gesualdo and Margaritus. Under the condition that the German army accompanying her leave unharmed, Constance left Salerno to be captured on August 8 and was delivered to Tancred at Messina.

Henry and his younger brothers Conrad and Philip managed to return to Germany while his subject Dipold also successfully defended the rear from a bridgehead in the Terra di Lavoro, as Tancred was too hesitant that he missed the opportunity to annihilate the invading army. On September 20, Henry was reported the abduction of his wife at Genoa.

After all Tancred secured his position with the German invasion defeated and Empress Constance captured and taken back to Palermo the capital. To show his knighthood, despite the suggestion of his wife Queen Sibylla of putting Constance to death, Tancred always treated the empress with honor, although later Sibylla and Matthew d'Ajello father of Nicholas managed to persuade him to imprison her at water-surrounded Castel dell'Ovo at Naples to be better-guarded and secluded from populace, while he might not have her released or ransomed unless Henry recognized him as king of Sicily. In 1192 Tancred appointed Margaritus as the first Count of Malta for his achievements, perhaps involving his unexpected achievement in capturing the empress.

But this victory was of little effect in the long term. In 1192 Tancred was forced to deliver Constance to Celestine III under pressure in exchange for the recognition of the latter who wanted to act as the mediator between him and Henry VI, with Constance intercepted and released on the way by German soldiers; he would die in 1194, months before Henry VI set a second expedition and finally conquered his kingdom, when Aligerno would surrender Naples without resistance.