Histoire de France - Moyen Âge; (Vol. 3 / 10)

The volume narrates the late thirteenth-century power struggles that linked the French royal house, the papacy, and southern Italy, showing how a French prince's accumulation of Italian and Mediterranean possessions shaped European politics. It examines papal diplomacy and factional rivalries between Guelfs and Ghibellines, the manipulation of crusading ventures for dynastic gain, and the financial and judicial measures that provoked clerical resistance. It describes the planning and outbreak of the Sicilian uprising against foreign rule and traces the diplomatic maneuvers involving Iberian kingdoms and the Holy Roman emperors. Chapters mix political narrative with portraiture of leading figures and analysis of institutional tensions between monarchy and Church.