page_title: Alamanno da Costa
section_title: Activities in the East
hierarchical_section_title: Alamanno da Costa / Activities in the East
caption_attribution_description: English: This image comes from the 13th-century record of the English chronicler Matthew Paris on the Fifth Crusade. The manuscript is located in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Nederlands: Deze afbeelding komt uit het 13de-eeuwse verslag van de Engelse kroniekschrijver Matthew Paris over de vijfde kruistocht. Het manuscript bevindt zich in Corpus Christi College te Cambridge. Italiano: Presa delle torri esterne a Damietta. Immagine dalle cronache del cronista inglese Matthew Paris (XIII secolo) sulla Quinta Crociata. Il manoscritto si trova al Corpus Christi College di Cambridge.
context_page_description: Alamanno da Costa was a Genoese admiral. He became the count of Syracuse in the Kingdom of Sicily, and led naval expeditions throughout the eastern Mediterranean. He was an important figure in Genoa's longstanding conflict with Pisa and in the origin of its conflict with Venice. The historian Ernst Kantorowicz called him a "famous prince of pirates".
context_section_description: In 1216, Alamanno assisted Enrico in an attempt to conquer Byzantine Crete, to which Venice made claim. In June 1217, he was captured by the Venetians under Marco Zorzano and imprisoned in an iron cage. In 1218 Enrico renounced any claim he had on Crete in favour of Venice and Alamanno was released. In 1219, Alamanno led one galley in support of the Fifth Crusade, and was present at the fall of Damietta.
  In 1220 Frederick II began asserting royal rights in Syracuse, attempting to throw out the Genoese, and proclaiming the city "most faithful" (fidelissima). The emperor expropriated the warehouses and other properties belonging to Genoa. After he was expelled from the city in 1221, Alamanno went to Terracina, where Pope Honorius III recommended him to the consuls of the city. In February 1224, Honorius took Alamanno, his family and his possessions under his protection while he was away on crusade. He had agreed to assist the margrave William VI of Montferrat in the reconquest of the Kingdom of Thessalonica in exchange for "one hundred knights or knight's fees" (centum militias seu militaria feuda) or one thousand marks of silver, guaranteed by Honorius. He probably died during the expedition. He was certainly deceased by 1229, when the podestà of Genoa, Iacopo di Balduino, wrote to the judge of Logudoro, Marianus II, ordering him not to give assistance to Caroccino, the illegitimate son of Alamanno, accused of "acts of piracy after the fashion of his father" (exercere pyraticam more patris).
caption: Naval assault at the siege of Damietta, from a 13th-century illustrated manuscript of Matthew Paris's chronicle
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