The Mistery of Belicena Villca aforementioned battle , besides Manfredo , many Knights of the Ghibelline side lost their lives , among them the father of Roger de Lauria , a boy who grew up in the chamber of the King of Aragón , Pedro III , since his mother was Lady in Waiting of Queen Constanza ; Roger de Lauria was , of course , the great admiral of the Catalan navy , the most powerful of its time , with which Pedro III conquered the kingdom of Sicily years later .
Dead Manfredo , and ruined the Ghibelline party , only the child Conradino remains in Swabia as the last virile offspring of the rebellious Hohenstaufen . Charles de Anjou agrees with Urban IV the usurpation of his rights : he proclaims himself King of Naples and seizes Sicily . He immediately establishes a regime of terror , directed mainly against the Ghibelline side ; the expropriations of property and titles , executions and deportations , occur without cease ; in a short time the French are as hated as the Saracens of Holy Land . One of the most illustrious victims is John of Procida , the Sage of the Courts of Frederick II and Manfred : member of a noble Ghibelline family , Lord of Salerno , of the island of Procida , and of several counties , he would not only be stripped of his titles and assets , but Charles de Anjou would commit a cowardly rape with his wife and daughter ; he would only save his life thanks to the admirable prudence with which he knew how to treat Golen Pope Urban IV .
A great outcry rises in the following years against French domination . In 1268 Conradino , who was sixteen at the time , went to Italy at the head of an army of ten thousand men , trusting that in the peninsula more troops would join him . Charles annihilates him in Tagliacozzo , horrifically torturing the Knights that he manages to take prisoner . Conradino , the last Hohenstaufen , tries to embark to flee from Italy but is betrayed and led to the power of Charles de Anjou . A unanimous request is raised for the grandson of Frederick II to be forgiven , but Clement IV is inflexible : “ Conradino ' s death is the life of Charles de Anjou ”; the Golen are not willing to suspend the extermination of the Lineage that caused so much harm to the White Fraternity plans .
After a parody of trial , Conradino is sentenced to death in Naples . Before handing his head over to the executioner , the boy shows his gallantry through a gesture that will mean , in the short term , the virtual defeat of Charles de Anjou : he takes off a glove and throws it at the crowd that has come to observe the execution , as he yells : I challenge a true Knight of Christ avenge my death at the hands of the Antichrist ! An instant later he is beheaded in the presence of Charles de Anjou , the papal legate , numerous Cardinals and Bishops , and dozens of Golen who cannot hide their rejoicing at the extinction of the Hohenstaufen lineage : at that time only the King of Sardinia , Enzo , son of Frederick II , remained alive , but prisoner for life in a Castle of Bologna since 1249 , and would be promptly poisoned for greater security . However , Conradino ' s gesture would not be in vain , as there were still Knights ready to fight against the satanic forces : the glove is collected by John of Procida on behalf of Pedro III of Aragón , husband of Constanza of Swabia . Manfredo ' s daughter , and Conradino ' s first cousin , is now the legitimate heir to the rights that the House of Swabia has over the throne of the two Sicilies and the only hope of the Ghibelline party .
It is necessary to see in the action deployed since then by John of Procida , another aspect of the opposition of the Hyperborean Wisdom to the plans of the White Fraternity , that is , of the esoteric cause of the failure of these plans . Indeed , that great Hyperborean Initiate took refuge in Aragón , together with other illustrious persecuted by Charles de Anjou and the Golen , and he was incorporated into the Aragonese nobility . The King granted him several Manors in Valencia , from where he made contact with the Circulus Domini Canis and joined its Strategy . He , more than anyone else , deserves the credit of having persuaded Pedro III of the justice of the Ghibelline Cause . For years this Lord of the Dog advises the King of Aragon on the affairs of Italy and plans the way to conquer it ; he will be enthusiastically supported by Constanza , who wishes to avenge her father Manfredo and the destruction of his family , Roger de Lauria , Conrado Lancia , and other uninitiated Sicilian Knights . In
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