Oration “De regno Siciliae” of Pope Pius II (May 1460, Siena). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 5th version. (Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini /Pius II; 58)

Published as part of project Edition and Translation of the Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius IIIn 1442, the French dynasty of Anjou was expelled from the Kingdom of Naples by King Alfonso V of the Spanish House of Aragon. In 1459, King René d’Anjou sent his son, Jean d’Anjou, to the Kingdom to try to win it back and expel Alfonso’s son, Ferrante I. Ferrante had been invested with the Kingdom by Pope Pius II, since the popes were the nominal suzerains of the Kingdom. In doing so, the pope simply respected decisions made by two previous popes as well as the Italian peace treaties of 1454/1455. At the Congress of Mantua, in December 1459, the French embassy had demanded that the pope revoke Ferrante’s investiture and grant it instead to King René. The pope refused the demands in a great oration, “Responsuri”. After the Congress of Mantua, the pope went to stay for some months in his native city of Siena. An embassy from René d’Anjou followed him there and again presented the demands for an investiture of King René with the Kingdom of Naples. The pope again refused, in the oration “De regno Siciliae”