Frederick III (or IV) (1 September 1341 – 27 January 1377), called the Simple, was King of Sicily from 1355 to 1377. He was the second son of Peter II of Sicily and Elisabeth of Carinthia. He succeeded his brother Louis. The documents of his era call him the "infante Frederick, ruler of the kingdom of Sicily", without any regnal number.
"Frederick the Simple" is often confused with an earlier Sicilian monarch, Frederick II, who chose to call himself "Frederick III", even though he was actually only the second King Frederick to occupy the Sicilian throne, as also this Frederick has been dubbed by later generations of genealogists and historians as Frederick III.
Frederick III was born in Catania, and succeeded to his brother Louis in 1355 under the regency of his sister, Euphemia of Sicily. In his youth the reign was under the control of powerful Sicialian barons, in particular of Artale I Alagona. The beginning of Frederick III's reign was also plagued by intermittent wars with the Kingdom of Naples (see War of the Sicilian Vespers) and also by the Black Death, to which his elder brother and predecessor had succumbed. In 1372 he was able to come to peace terms with Naples and Pope Gregory IX, obtaining the title of tributary King of "Trinacria".
He appointed his uncle, Roland, to act on his behalf in the Duchy of Athens and Neopatria.
On 11 April 1361, Frederick married his first wife Constance of Aragon, daughter of King Peter IV of Aragon. They had only one daughter, Maria. On 17 January 1372, Frederick married secondly Antonia of Balzo. There were no children from this marriage. Frederick was betrothed again to Antonia Visconti, but he died before the wedding and was succeeded by his only child, Queen Maria.
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Louis |
King of Sicily 1355–1377 |
Succeeded by Maria |
| Preceded by Frederick I |
Duke of Athens 1355–1377 |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Simple, Frederick Iii The |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1 September 1341 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 27 January 1377 |
| Place of death | |
Famous quotes containing the words the simple, frederick, iii and/or simple:
“The more the specific feelings of being under obligation range themselves under a supreme principle of human dependence the clearer and more fertile will be the realization of the concept, indispensable to all true culture, of service; from the service of God down to the simple social relationship as between employer and employee.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“The army is the true nobility of our country.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte III (1808–1873)
“Chaucer sawed life in half and out tumbled hundreds of unpremeditated lives, because he didn’t have the cast-iron grid of a priori coherence that makes reading Goethe, Shakespeare, or Dante an exercise in searching for signs of life among the conventions, compulsions, self-justifications, proofs, wise saws, simple but powerful messages, and poetry.”
—Marvin Mudrick (1921–1986)