Manfredi I Chiaramonte
Manfredi I Chiaramonte | |
|---|---|
.svg?lang=en) Chiaramonte coat of arms | |
| Count of Modica | |
| Tenure | 1296 – c. 1321 |
| Predecessor | Federico Mosca (forfeited) |
| Successor | Giovanni II Chiaramonte |
| Born | c. 1260s[a] Sicily (probably Girgenti/Agrigento) |
| Died | c. 1321 |
| Spouse |
|
| Issue |
|
| Father | Federico Chiaramonte |
| Mother | Marchisia Profoglio (Prefoglio) |
Manfredi I Chiaramonte[b] (c. 1260s[a] - c. 1321), also known as il Vecchio (“the Elder”), was a Sicilian nobleman of the Chiaramonte family. A supporter of Frederick III of Aragon during the War of the Sicilian Vespers, he was invested in 1296 with the County of Modica, which became the basis of his family's power.
Origins and family
[edit]Manfredi I Chiaramonte was the son of Federico Chiaramonte and Marchisia Profoglio[b], probably the eldest.[1] He was born in Sicily shortly after the mid-13th century, into a family already established on the island through Profoglio inheritances around Girgenti (Agrigento); by 1300 Marchisia is recorded founding and endowing a Cistercian house there.[1]
Claims that the Chiaramonte descended from the French Clermonts remain unproven; modern reference works treat the connection as possible but uncertain.[2]
Manfredi I had at least two brothers, Giovanni I Chiaramonte (also known as il Vecchio) and Federico.[1] By the early 1300s a partition of the family estates is attested: Giovanni held Favara, Comiso and Mussaro[c] (acquired in 1305 in exchange for Margidiramo); Federico held Racalmuto and Siculiana; while Manfredi had received Caccamo from his mother Marchisia (d. c. 1300) and later added the County of Modica with Ragusa and Scicli (1296).[1]
Career
[edit]Note: After the Sicilian Vespers (1282) Sicily and Naples were ruled by rival dynasties.
Sicily (Aragonese line):
- Peter I of Sicily (r. 1282–1285) — also king of Aragon as Peter III
- James I of Sicily (r. 1285–1291) — later ceded Sicily by the Treaty of Anagni
- Frederick III (r. 1296–1337)
Naples (Angevin line):
- Charles I of Anjou (r. 1266–1285)
- Charles II (r. 1285–1309)
- Robert of Anjou (r. 1309–1343)
Aragon (Crown of Aragon; external but decisive):
- Peter III of Aragon (r. 1276–1285)
- Alfonso III of Aragon (r. 1285–1291)
- James II of Aragon (r. 1291–1327)
Background
[edit]The Sicilian Vespers revolt of 1282 expelled Angevin (French/Neapolitan) forces from the island and brought in the Aragonese dynasty. The old kingdom split: the island (“Kingdom of Sicily” or “Trinacria”) was ruled by the Aragonese, while the mainland (“Kingdom of Naples”) remained Angevin.
Career
[edit]In this divided political landscape, Manfredi first appears in the record in the 1290s. Though from a Latin family, he aligned himself with the Aragonese claimant Frederick III. His support was rewarded on 25 March 1296, when Frederick invested him with the vast County of Modica, confiscated from Angevin partisans.[1] The county, centred on Ragusa and Scicli, became a semi-autonomous jurisdiction, later summarised in the formula sicut ego in regno meo, tu in comitatu tuo ("you in your county as I in my kingdom").[3]
Through his marriage to Isabella Mosca, daughter of Count Federico Mosca, Manfredi also secured claims to Ragusa and Scicli.[1] The consolidation of these territories gave him a power base in southeastern Sicily, while his inheritance of Caccamo from his mother Marchisia anchored him in the north.[1]
Manfredi was active in royal service. He is recorded as grand seneschal of the kingdom, and played a prominent role in Frederick III’s court.[1] By the time of his death (c. 1321), he had established the Chiaramonte among the four leading baronial houses of Sicily (with the Alagona, Peralta and Ventimiglia), remembered collectively as the "four kings in the kingdom".[4]
Patronage
[edit]In 1310 the bishop of Girgenti (Agrigento) granted Manfredi adjoining houses in the city for an annual census; on this site he “laid the foundations” of a fortified palazzo (an steri), traces of which survive within the present episcopal seminary.[1]
Contemporary and later notices also credit him with enlargement works at the Castello di Caccamo around 1300, part of his patrimony from his mother Marchisia Profoglio.[5]
Although the celebrated Monastero di Santo Spirito at Agrigento is often cited as an early exemplar of Chiaramontan Gothic architecture, the foundation itself (1299) belongs to Manfredi’s mother, Marchisia (Rosalia) Profoglio, rather than to Manfredi personally.[1][2]
Family life
[edit]The date of Manfredi's marriage to Isabella Mosca is not recorded, but the match was in place by 1296, when Manfredi was invested with the county following the Mosca forfeiture.[1] From this marriage were born two children: Giovanni II Chiaramonte (his successor in Modica) and Costanza, who married Francesco I Ventimiglia, count of Geraci.[1]
Although his endowment lay chiefly in the south-east (Modica, Ragusa, Scicli), the family’s roots and a principal residence remained at Girgenti (Agrigento). The great Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri in Palermo is attributed by sources to his brother Giovanni’s initiative in 1307.[1]
Death and succession
[edit]Manfredi I Chiaramonte died c. 1321.[1] He was succeeded in the County of Modica by his son, Giovanni II Chiaramonte, then still a minor, under the guardianship of his uncle Giovanni I Chiaramonte "il Vecchio".[1]
Manfredi’s testament provided that, should Giovanni II die without a male heir, the succession should pass to the line of his brother Giovanni I. This arrangement came into effect in 1342, when Giovanni II died childless in the male line, and the county passed to Giovanni I’s son, Manfredi II Chiaramonte.[1]
Gallery
[edit]-
Monastero di Santo Spirito, Agrigento (1299; Marchisia Profoglio). -
Castello di Caccamo; works attributed to Manfredi I (c.1300). -
Ragusa Ibla, in the County of Modica (1296). -
Castello dei Conti, Modica; main phases postdate Manfredi I. -
Succession of the Counts of Modica.
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b No record of Manfredi’s birth survives. Treccani places it “shortly after the mid-13th century”; this is consistent with his investiture in 1296 and death c. 1321.[1]
- ^ a b Contemporary and later sources vary the spelling of the family name as Chiaramonte/Chiaromonte; his mother's surname appears as Profoglio/Prefoglio. Modern Italian reference works (Treccani) standardise on Chiaramonte and attest both maternal forms.[1][2]
- ^ Mussaro is generally identified with present-day Sant'Angelo Muxaro (AG). Margidiramo/Margidirami was a casale in the territory of modern Porto Empedocle; in 1305 Giovanni exchanged it with the Church of Agrigento for Mussaro.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Walter, Ingeborg (1980). "Chiaramonte, Manfredi (il Vecchio), conte di Modica". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 24. Treccani.
- ^ a b c "Chiaramonte". Dizionario di Storia. Treccani.
- ^ "Contea di Modica". Sicilia Medievale. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ Epstein, Steven A. (1996). Genoa and the Genoese, 958–1528. University of North Carolina Press. p. 279.
- ^ "Castello di Caccamo". Visit Sicily. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
Category:14th-century Sicilian people