Jordan Lupinus

Norman tower at Bovino

Jordan Lupinus (died 1197) was the first count of Bovino in the Norman kingdom of Sicily. He played a major role in the final years of Norman rule and first years of the Staufer dynasty. Twice he was involved in opposing crusader armies passing through Sicily. In the second instance, he led a revolt, perhaps in the hope of seizing the throne, was captured and executed.

He was the younger son of Count Hugh I of Catanzaro and younger brother of Count Hugh of Conversano.[1] Jordan's surname, Lupinus or Lupin, was shared by his father and brother. It was mangled, however, by the English chronicler Roger of Hoveden into "Jordanus de Pino" or "Jordanus del Pin". The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi, however, correctly renders it Luppin.[2]

Jordan was the royal seneschal (regis senescalcus) under William II in March 1187. In the succession dispute that followed William's death in 1189, he supported Tancred, who rewarded him with the county of Bovino. This county was a new creation, having been carved out of the south of the county of Loritello.[1][2][3]

By the autumn of 1190, Tancred had entrusted the defence of Messina to Jordan, and he was in charge when two large armies of Third Crusade under Philip II of France and Richard I of England arrived. According to Roger of Hoveden, while Jordan and some other Sicilian leaders were meeting with Richard in the latter's lodgings, a riot broke out and the Anglo-Norman crusaders were attacked. In response, Richard stormed the city. According to both Roger of Hoveden and the Norman poet Ambroise, Jordan and the Sicilian admiral Margaritus had stirred up the city against the crusaders and provoked the riots.[2][4]

After Tancred's death in 1194, the Emperor Henry VI took over Sicily in the name of his wife, Constance, daughter of Roger II. Despite having supported Tancred's claim over Constance's, Jordan and his brother supported Henry after Tancred's death and both appear to have gained Henry's trust, for they confirmed many of the emperor's Sicilian grants and privileges.[3]

In 1197, as Henry passed through Sicily on his way to join the German crusade, a revolt broke out. Jordan and his brother were both implicated.[3] According to the Annales Stadenses, under the year 1196, the leader of the revolt was one "Jordanus de Sicilia". The historian Evelyn Jamison first proposed that this was Jordan Lupinus, a proposal which has been widely accepted.[5] Henry crushed the rebellion mercilessly, inflicting terrible vengeance on captured rebels. Jordan, described by one chronicle as a pretender to the throne at this stage, was holed up in the castle of Castrogiovanni.[6] He surrendered to Henry and was executed in June 1197. According to Otto of Sankt Blasien, the emperor "ordered that a man who aspired to the royal crown [i.e. Jordan] should have a crown fixed to him by iron nails".[7]

Notes

  1. 1 2 G. A. Loud and Thomas E. J. Wiedemann (eds.), The History of the Tyrants of Sicily by ‘Hugo Falcandus’, 1154–69 (Manchester University Press, 1998), p. 215, n. 72.
  2. 1 2 3 Dione Rose Clementi, "The Circumstances of Count Tancred's Accession to the Kingdom of Sicily, Duchy of Apulia and the Principality of Capua", Mélanges Antonio Marongiu (Palermo: 1967), pp. 57–80, at 68–69.
  3. 1 2 3 Dione Rose Clementi, "Calendar of Diplomas of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Henry VI Concerning the Kingdom of Sicily", Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 35 (1955), pp. 86–225, at 136.
  4. ↑ John Gillingham, Richard I (Yale University Press, 1999), p. 134 and n. 41.
  5. ↑ Ulrike Kessler, Richard I. Löwenherz: König, Kreuzritter, Abenteurer (Verlag Styria, 1995), p. 418, n. 222.
  6. ↑ Thomas Curtis Van Cleve, The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immutator Mundi (Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 24.
  7. ↑ G. A. Loud (ed.), The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and Related Texts (Ashgate, 2010), pp. 173–92, at §39 and n. 50.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.