“Frederick died toiling on at the oar, and the pope shouted with joy at the news. His son Conrad only showed himself in Italy to meet his death. Thus the empire escaped out of the hands of this family; ... but the kingdom of Naples remained in the grasp of the bastard Manfred, the true son of Frederick II, brilliant, witty, and debauched, impious as his father, a man apart, whom none hated or loved by halves. He gloried in being a bastard, like numerous heroes and gods of antiquity.”