Versione italiana "Many many years ago, in a land between the sea and hills, there were a castle, a jealous king and a beautiful princess penned in a tower". How many tales may begin in this way. But the story of Bianca Lancia , the woman loved by Frederick II and mother of three of his children, isn't a fairy tale. A happy ending neither, but it represents one of the darkest and the most dramatic events that tradition links to the Stupor mundi. There aren't certain sources, but a chronicle of that time, the father of Bonaventura from Lama, tells this. Bianca Lancia, the emperor's young lover, lived in the castle of Gioia del Colle , pregnant with Frederick's son, Manfredi, when an accusation of betrayal questioned the paternity of the baby. The emperor, mad with jealousy, ordered to close the woman in a tower of the castle until she gave birth to the child. When he was born, the resemblance with the sovereign freed Bianca from any doubts. But t...