“ Assuming the title of king of Jerusalem and Sicily, he raised an army by pledging his Swabian estates and marched to Italy in 1251, where with the help of his illegitimate half-brother, Manfred, he overran Apulia and took Capua and Naples. He was preparing to return to Germany at the head of a large army when he died at Lavello on the 21st of May 1254. ”