Charles de Valois

Son of King Philip III of France and Isabella of Aragon, and the brother of Philip the Fair, Charles of Valois (Valenciennes, 1270 – Le Perray, 1325) has gone down in history with the disparaging nickname of “Lackland”, for the reason that in his lifetime he did not succeed in gaining any of the crowns that he sought. He married Marguerite, daughter of Charles II of Anjou, but was forced to renounce the throne of Sicily through the Treaty of Anagni (1294). Subsequently, first in 1308, as successor to Albert of Habsburg, and again in 1313, following the death of Henry VII, lack of papal support prevented him from achieving the role of Emperor, thereby definitively setting him in the margins of history. In 1301 his brother sent him to Sicily to quell the pro-Aragon uprising. Although his expedition achieved several victories, it ended in surrender in the summer of the following year, and he was obliged sign the Peace of Caltabellotta. Meanwhile, however, Pope Boniface VIII had exploited his presence in Italy by sending him to Florence as a peacemaker, to resolve the conflict between the Black and White Guelfs. Fulfilling the Pope’s hidden agenda, Charles subjected the Whites to harsh treatment, with numerous banishments, killings, confiscations and fires, thereby promoting the victory of the Blacks. Having spoken out in a number of Communal bodies against Charles de Valois’s presence in Florence, Dante was included among those punished. In the Commedia the Anjou prince is recalled in Purg., XX 70-77, where he is compared to Judas: in harming the city he used the same weapon used by the traitor of Christ, the lance of betrayal.