Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/301

Rh The marriage, which soon after took place between Lewis and Blanch, of Castile, did not long cement the friendship of John and Philip; and had not Constance, who was a woman of conduct and courage, died at the time when she could have taken advantage of circumstances, and again asserted the rights of her son, it is most likely he would not have fallen a victim to the barbarity of his uncle, or his sister languished all her innocent life in prison.

the death of William the Good, 1189, became heiress to these kingdoms; and her husband, Henry VI. at the same time became emperor; on which, after settling the affairs of Germany, he levied an army, and marched into Italy, in order to be crowned by the pope, and go with the empress Constantia to recover the succession of Sicily, which was usurped by Tancred, her natural brother, or rather, the grandson of her father. In 1191, he prepared for the conquest of Naples and Sicily, took almost all the towns of Campania, Apulia, and Calabria, invested the city of Naples, and sent for the Genoese fleet, which he had engaged to come and form the blockade by sea: but, before its arrival, he was obliged to raise the siege, in consequence of a dreadful mortality among the troops; and all future attempts proved ineffectual during the life of Tancred; after whose death the conquest of Sicily was effected by the aid of the Genoese.

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