John of Procida

John of Procida (Italian: "Giovanni da Procida"; 1210 – 1298) was an Italian medieval physician and diplomat.

He was born at Salerno, educated in the Schola Medica as a physician, and rose through the diplomatic ranks in the Hohenstaufen Kingdom of Sicily. He was actually John III, son of John II of Procida and Clemenza Logoteta, of the family of the lords of the island of Procida.

He was originally a counsellor of Frederick I of Sicily and was entrusted with the education of Frederick's son Manfred. He was at Manfred's side until his defeat at the Battle of Benevento in 1266. John then fled Italy and spent years wandering the courts of Europe trying to drum up support for the return of the Hohenstaufen to the throne of Sicily. He was particularly active in Rome, Constantinople, and Barcelona.

In the latter capital, he offered his services to James I of Aragon and then to Peter III, who married Constance, heiress of Manfred, and thus inherited his claim. John travelled to Sicily after the Vespers to stir up the discontents in favour of Peter and thence to Constantinople to procure the support of the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. Michael refused to aid the Aragonese king without papal approval and so John voyaged to Rome and there gained the consent of Pope Nicholas III, who feared the ascent of Charles of Anjou in the Mezzogiorno. John of Procida then returned to Barcelona. On 2 February 1283, Peter, who had invaded Sicily, nominated John as Grand Chancellor. He was put in charge of the island when Peter went to France to take up a challenge by Charles later that year. All this did not stop the aged diplomat from continuing his frenetic activity at the varied courts of Europe's monarchs. It was on one of these trips that he died, at Rome, at the age of eighty-eight years, in 1298.

The legacy of John of Procida is controversial. "Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia", a Sicilian-language tract from 1290, lauds him highly. He is more typically portrayed, particularly by Guelf partisans, as "cospiratore contro l'autorità costituita", a "conspirator against the constitutional authority." His reputation has experienced a bit of a rehabilitation and he has been called one of the first politicians and diplomats in the modern senses of the terms.

According to legend, he was in Naples "incognito" on 29 October 1268, when they executed Conradin. He supposedly recoverred the "guanto di sfida" (gauntlet) Conradin threw into the crowd before his execution.

ources

*Chaytor, H. J. (1933). [http://libro.uca.edu/chaytor/achistory.htm "A History of Aragon and Catalonia".] London: Methuen.