Conradin of Hohenstaufen beheaded in Naples

October 29, 1268

The sixteen-year-old claimant to the Sicilian throne, grandson of Frederick II, was defeated at Tagliacozzo by Charles of Anjou and executed in the main square of Naples. The Hohenstaufen male line ended on a scaffold, watched by his friend Frederick of Baden, killed beside him. Legend records that Conradin threw his glove into the crowd before the ax fell, a gesture of defiance that became a romantic symbol.