Assizes of Capua

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Assizes of Capua" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (January 2025) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,571 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Assisen von Capua]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Assisen von Capua}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Assizes of Capua were the first of three great legislative acts of the kingdom of Sicily of Frederick II of Sicily, Holy Roman Emperor. They were the first, promulgated at Capua in 1220, before the Assizes of Messina on 1221 and the Constitutions of Melfi of 1231.

The Assizes were promulgated on the mainland of the realm as they were a reform of the Assizes of Ariano, promulgated by Frederick's grandfather Roger II in 1140 at Ariano Irpino, nearby to Capua. The intent was, as in the previous Assizes and his coming Constitutions, the strengthening of the royal power in the kingdom, usually at the expense of the nobility. From Frederick II's perspective, this was "a sort of practical conservatism ... by sweeping aside the abuses of the last 22 years...."^[1]

Some important provisions included:^[1]

• The Crown controlled fiefs.
• Barons had to gain approval of their marriages.
• Subinfeudation had to be approved by the king.
• Privileges granted by Markward van Anweiler and his other predecessors would have to be reviewed, with a substantial fee for renewal.
• Adulterine castles would be reigned in.
• New royal customs duties and tariffs on ports and toll roads.
• Restrictions on gambling.
• Jewish people and prostitutes had to wear distinctive clothing.

• Assizes of Messina
• Civil law
• Constitutions of Melfi
• History of Swabian Sicily
• Holy Roman Empire
• Legal history
• Medieval Europe
• Richard of San Germano, chronicler of this and related statutes.

• Carlo Alberto Garufi, Ryccardi de Sancto Germano chronica, 1937, S. 88–93, 94–96.
• Horst Enzensberger (1983). "Capua, Assisen von". Lexikon des Mittelalters, II: Bettlerwesen bis Codex von Valencia (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 1491–1492. ISBN 3-7608-8902-6.
• Thomas Curtis VanCleve: The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Immutator Mundi. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1972, S. 139–145.
• Hermann Dilcher: Die sizilische Gesetzgebung Kaiser Friedrichs II. Quellen der Constitutionen von Melfi und ihrer Novellen Köln u. a. 1975 (Studien und Quellen zur Welt Kaiser Friedrichs II.,3). S. 18–19: Konkordanzen, weitere Literatur.

This European history–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article relating to the law of Europe or of a European country is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e