Lancia

The Lancia, later spelled Lanza, were a noble house with lands in Piedmont and Sicily, traced to Manfred I, margrave of Busca, an Aleramici dynast first recorded around 1160 whose surname was said to come from the lancifer office under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

Its fortunes rested on the Hohenstaufen: Bianca Lancia, raised at Brolo in Sicily, was Frederick II's mistress and possibly deathbed wife, and mother of King Manfred. Her uncle Manfred II was Frederick's imperial vicar in Piedmont and Lombardy, fighting Guelph communes until he changed sides in 1252. Giordano Lancia, marshal of Sicily, led Ghibelline cavalry to victory at Montaperti in 1260, but after Manfred fell at Benevento in 1266 Charles of Anjou captured Giordano, mutilated and beheaded him at Brolo in 1267.

Angevin conquest broke the house's power, though the Sicilian line kept the barony of Longi and revived in the fifteenth century under Blasco Lanza; his heirs became princes of Trabia in 1601 and dukes of Brolo.