Enzio of Sardinia
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Enzio or Enzo (Italianisation of Heinz, diminutive of Heinrich) (circa 1224 – 1272) was an Italian nobleman, general, and King of Sardinia. Born at Palermo, he was an illegitimate son of the Emperor Frederick II by Adelaide. Enzio was the eldest of the illegitimate sons of Frederick. He had a pleasant personality and a strong physical resemblance to his father. He fought in the wars between his father, the pope, and the Northern Italian communes.
When Ubaldo of Gallura died in 1238, the Doria family of Genoa, in order to secure the Giudicato of Logudoro from Pisan domination, convinced the emperor to marry Enzio to Ubaldo's widow, Adelasia of Torres. By marrying her, Enzo would accede to half of the island of Sardinia jure uxoris. He was created a knight in Cremona and granted the title "King of Sardinia." He travelled to the island to marry Adelasia in October that year.
In July 1239, he was assigned as imperial vicar general in Lombardy and left Sardinia never to return. In 1241, he took part in the capture of a papal fleet at Giglio Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. His first successful move as military leader was the reconquest of Jesi, in the Marche, which was Frederick's birthplace. In 1245 or 1246, to Adelasia's sadness, his marriage was annulled. In 1247, he took part in the unsuccessful siege of Parma.
During a campaign to support the Ghibelline cities of Modena and Cremona against Guelph Bologna, he was defeated and captured on 26 May 1249 at the Battle of Fossalta. Enzio was thenceforth kept prisoner in Bologna, in the palace that came to bear his name. Every attempt to escape or to rescue him failed, and he died in prison in 1272: after the murder of Conradin in 1268, he was the last of the Hohenstaufen.
Enzio shared the father's passion for falconry, and was the dedicatee of a French translation of a hunting treatise by Yatrib. Like his brother Manfred, he presumambly grew fond of poetry at Frederick's court: during his long imprisonment Enzio wrote several poems, and his pitiful fate was itself a source of inspiration for several poets.
The powerful Bentivoglio family of Bologna and Ferrara claimed descent from him.
[edit] Sources
- Ferrabino, Aldo (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: I Aaron – Albertucci. Rome, 1960.
- Sperle, C. König Enzo von Sardinien und Friedrich von Antiochia. Zwei illegitime Söhne Kaiser Friedrichs II. und ihre Rolle in der Verwaltung des Regnum Italiae. trans. Peter Lang. 2001. ISBN 3-631-37457-7.
- Columbia Encyclopedia: Enzio.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Preceded by Ubaldo |
Giudice of Logudoro 1238 – 1245 |
Succeeded by none |
