Margaret of Sicily

Margaret of Sicily (c. 1237–1270) was a Hohenstaufen princess born in Foggia, daughter of Emperor Frederick II and Isabella of England. She married Albert “the Degenerate”, heir to Meissen, in 1255, bringing the Pleissnerland as her dowry, and bore him five children at the Wartburg. In 1265 Albert became Landgrave of Thuringia.

After her nephew Conradin was executed in 1268, she inherited the Hohenstaufen claim to Sicily and Swabia. In June 1270, discovering Albert’s adultery, she fled to Frankfurt am Main, where the citizens supported her, and died there on 8 August. Legend says she bit her son Frederick’s cheek, earning him the nickname “the Bitten”.