Charles I of Anjou

The youngest son of Louis VIII of France, Charles was headed for the church until his early twenties redirected him toward crowns. Marriage to Beatrice brought him Provence and Forcalquier in the 1240s; his brother Louis IX handed him Anjou and Maine in appanage. He spent the 1250s crushing autonomous cities and rebellious nobles across Provence, expanding his grip on the Kingdom of Arles. In 1263 he accepted the Holy See's offer to seize Sicily from the Hohenstaufens - Pope Urban IV declared it a crusade. Crowned in Rome on 5 January 1266, Charles annihilated Manfred's army, then finished Manfred's nephew Conradin at Tagliacozzo in 1268. By the 1270s he held claims to Jerusalem and Achaea, commanded Guelph loyalty across Italy, and squeezed tribute from North Africa. In 1281 Pope Martin IV blessed a Byzantine campaign; Charles's fleet massed at Messina. On 30 March 1282 the Sicilian Vespers uprising erupted and the island was gone. He spent his last three years defending the mainland with French and papal help, and died in 1285 planning an invasion he would never launch.