When Dante notices Beatrice become even more beautiful, he is aware that they have ascended to the next level of Heaven, the planet Venus. He sees “heavenly lights” dancing toward them. One of them speaks to him, and it is Charles Martel of Anjou (1271-1295), the ruler of Hungary, whom Dante knew personally. Charles says that the world suffered from his early death (of the plague) in that many realms were deprived of his guidance. He laments the wrong done to his family and castigates the rule of his brother, Robert, who inherited his throne.

Dante wonders, on the basis of some of Charles’s comments, how a good father can have a bad son. Charles argues that different human beings have different natures, and the world should not try to make people take on roles for which they are unsuited.

In this canto, Dante meets three persons known to him in life. The first is Charles’s wife, Clemenza, whom Dante assures that the enemies of her husband shall be punished. The second is Cunizza da Romano, a northern Italian noblewoman, who gives three prophesies of political events in her region. Third is Folco of Marseilles, a Provencal poet and troubadour who later became a bishop.