ABSTRACT
Charles I of Anjou’s expedition, backed by the French Church, was regarded within northern France with uncritical respect, though some southern troubadours were less inclined to be generous about his motives. Charles has, however, received rather little credit for all this from historians who have pointed out that what he saw as his religious duty coincided with his ambition. Charles’s relations with the mendicant orders, particularly beloved by his brother Louis, were less close. Had he consulted a manual on the proper conduct of a layman towards the Church, Charles could hardly have behaved in a more conventional, old-fashioned and measured way. In 1296 Charles of Salerno moved his body to a chapel built for the purpose in the new cathedral. By then it was clear that the Angevin regime that he had created was going to survive in southern Italy at least.
