Richard, Count of Acerra

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Richard, count of Acerra, was the brother of Sibylla, queen of Tancred of Sicily. He was the chief peninsular supporter of his brother-in-law during his claim for the throne in 1189.

Richard was the co-commander of the army attached to Tancred's fleet in 1185. They captured Durazzo from the Byzantine Empire without a struggle. The city had fully surrendered by June 24th. [1] Richard then lead his army on a march across the Balkan peninsula and by August 6th he had began his siege of Thessalonica. On August 24th Thessalonika fell to Richard's armies in its turn.[2]

In 1190, Richard was charged with keeping the German supporters of Roger of Andria out of Apulia. Richard secured all Apulia and the Terra di Lavoro. Richard then "raised a great army of Romans and men from Campania and the Regno to attack the Capuans and Aversans[3]. He invaded the region of Monte Cassino, but at that time the German marshal Henry Testa invaded Apulia and joined with Roger of Andria. Richard fortified Ariano against them. They had much success until the German troops left. Richard then invited Roger to a meeting and treacherously arrested and imprisoned him. He had him executed soon after. Richard finally turned to Capua at that junction and the city fearfully surrendered without a siege.

Later, when the Emperor Henry VI, the only remaining claimant against Tancred, invaded the Terra di Lavoro, Richard took refuge in Naples. From May to August 1191, Henry invested the city with a siege. When Henry was forced by illness to retire north of the Alps, Richard left Naples and pounced on Capua, where he massacred the Germans left there under Conrad Muscaincervello. Richard then besieged Roger of Molise in Venafro, then San Germano (where treachery again had the day), and finally the monastery of Monte Cassino itself. By then, Tancred's victory was secure.

When Tancred died in 1194, Henry quickly marched down the peninsula and had himself crowned in Palermo. Richard "abandoned Campania and Burgentia, the fortresses which he was [still] holding,"[4] and tried to flee. He was betrayed (fittingly) by a monk and turned over to the Diepold von Schweinspeunt, who threw him in prison. When, in 1197, Henry arrived in the south, Richard was turned over to him. As Richard of San Germano writes:

“ He held a general court in Capua, at which he ordered that the count first be drawn behind a horse through the squares of Capua, and then hanged alive head downwards. The latter was still alive after two days when a certain German jester called Leather-Bag [Follis], hoping to please the emperor, tied a large stone to his neck and shamefully put him to death.[5] ”

Diepold was given the county of Acerra by Henry.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Norwich, John Julius. Byzantium: The Decline and Fall (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996) p. 147
  2. ^ Norwich. Byzantium: The Decline and Fall p. 147-149
  3. ^ Annales Casinenses trans. G. A. Loud.
  4. ^ Ryccardi di Sancto Germano Notarii Chronicon trans. G. A. Loud.
  5. ^ Ibid.

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