The youngest brother of King Louis IX of France, Charles I of Anjou departed conspicuously from the pattern that had been customary for siblings of Capetian monarchs In 1263 Charles was prevailed upon by the French pope Urban IV to accept the throne of Sicily and southern Italy as a papal fief. The coronation was an epoch-making event, in papal as well as Italian history. On 26 February 1266 Charles won the battle of Benevento, Manfred and many of his supporters were killed, and the kingdom of Sicily became Angevin. However, the arrival on the scene of the young Corradin, only surviving legitimate grandson of Frederick II, in the autumn of 1267 threatened to destroy Charles’s achievement. Charles’s arrival in Italy, his brief tenure of the senatorship of Rome from 1263 to 1267, and his two victories had a major impact on Italian politics.