Assizes of Capua

The Assizes of Capua were the first of three great legislative acts of the kingdom of Sicily under Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, promulgated at Capua in 1220 before the Assizes of Messina of 1221 and the Constitutions of Melfi of 1231. They were issued on the mainland of the realm and reformed the Assizes of Ariano, promulgated in 1140 at Ariano Irpino by Frederick's grandfather Roger II. As in the earlier Assizes and his later Constitutions, the intent was to strengthen royal power in the kingdom, usually at the expense of the nobility, which from Frederick's perspective was a sort of practical conservatism aimed at sweeping aside the abuses of the previous twenty-two years.