The Papacy, the Sicilian Church, and King Frederick III (1302-1321)

"The Papacy, the Sicilian Church, and King Frederick III (1302-1321)." Frederick III, who emerged shakily from the war of the Sicilian Vespers as the new ruler, sought to shore up his political position by allying himself with the Sicilian church, which had suffered great damage during the conflict. This policy, common enough in the Middle Ages, was complicated by several factors: the government's need to appeal as well to the inland barons, who had been the chief attackers of ecclesiastical holdings; Catalan demands for various postings and privileges at a time of particularly strong Sicilian xenophobia; Sicily's unexpected acquisition of the duchy of Athens, which gave new urgency to papal and Angevin attempts to remove Frederick from power; and the support found at court and among the populace for the heterodox Franciscan Spirituals, at least some of whom believed Frederick to be the prophesied king who would inaugurate the final age before the Second Coming of Christ. Royal-ecclesiastical relations after 1300, so typical in many ways, thus offer a unique perspective on several of the major developments in the Mediterranean world in the first half of the fourteenth century.