This is seen in his policies in Sicily and Germany as well, and is a sense in which Frederick, in sustaining the traditional imperial role, was deeply conservative. The popes in the end found that much of their work had been done for them. The papacy required of the towns not subordination but alliance, and was thus bound to be a more attractive proposition than this unorthodox but ultimately reactionary emperor.
Papal opposition to Frederick contained several strands. There was the ideological war, the continuation of the dispute over the respective roles of pope and emperor. There was the territorial issue; in northern Italy, where loss of influence would bring imperial control much closer to Rome, and in the central papal states where the pope was attempting to create a buffer zone. Southern Italy figured as well. The papacy's cooperation in the Norman conquest of Sicily had given it particular interests in the kingdom. That Constance had made the infant Frederick a papal ward was typical of the relationship. Frederick's restoration of order in Sicily was more than acceptable to the pope; his exclusion of clerics from government, and his use of Sicilian resources against the pope, emphatically were not. Gregory IX had made influence within Sicily a keystone of his campaign against Frederick. After 1250 control of Sicily became paramount, and the popes, as always dependent on the military resources of others for the execution of their policy, cast about for allies. Fatefully, they settled on the house of Anjou. The French king's brother Charles was invited to southern Italy to oppose Manfred; and with this began three generations of close Franco-papal alliance, hardened and consolidated by war and the strategy for first the south and then also the rest of Italy.
The 'question of Sicily' is of great significance. Indeed, it has been described as 'the beginning of modern political history'. For Sicily itself, the introduction of the Angevins meant not only a continuation of alien rule but also a protracted period of division and warfare. Frederick had restored order, quashed rebellious barons, and introduced control over office-holding which placed them in a more dependent position. He had provided the kingdom with a law code, a university to train its
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