Charles of Anjou kills Manfred at Benevento

February 26, 1266

Invited south by the papacy to crush the Hohenstaufen, Louis IX's brother routed Manfred of Sicily on a plain near Benevento. Manfred died on the field; his body was buried in unconsecrated ground under a cairn of stones. Charles assumed the crown of Sicily. His harsh Angevin rule would provoke the Sicilian Vespers sixteen years later, a revolt that split his Mediterranean kingdom in two.