Sicilian Vespers
The rising had its origin in the struggle between the Holy Roman Empire, represented by the Hohenstaufen emperors, and the Papacy for control over Italy. When the last Hohenstaufen Manfred of Sicily was defeated in 1266, the kingdom of Sicily was entrusted to Charles of Anjou by Pope Urban IV.
Charles regarded his Sicilian territories as a springboard for his Mediterranean wide ambitions, which included the overthrow of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. His French officials who goverened Sicily badly mistreated the native Sicilians, including rape, theft and murder without reproach.
There are two interpretations, not necessarily mutually exclusive, of events. One stresses the weltpolitik of Michael Palaeologus and the Aragonese king Peter III in fomenting the revolt; the other concentrates on the grassroots unpopularity of Charles's rule among the native Sicilians. The latter view gained popularity during the Risorgimento, when it was propounded by the patriot Michele Amari during the nineteenth century.
The event is so named because the insurrection began at the start of the evening prayer service of vespers on Easter Monday (March 30, 1282) at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo and eventually led to the massacre of thousands of Sicily's French inhabitants over the course of the next six weeks. The exact events that started the uprising are not known for sure, but all the retellings have common elements.
According to Steven Runciman, Sicilians at the church were engaged in holiday festivities and a group of French officials came by to join in and began to drink. A sergeant named Drouet dragged a young married women from the crowd, pestering her with his advances. Her husband then attacked Drouet with a knife, killing him. When the other Frenchmen tried to avenge their comrade, the Sicilian crowd fell upon them, killing them all. At that moment the chuch bell at the Holy Spirit and all the church bells in Palermo began to ring for Vespers.
According to Leonardo Bruni (1416), the Palermitans were holding a festival outside the city when the French came up to check for weapons, and on that pretext began to fondle the breasts of their women. This then started a riot, the French were attacked first with rocks, then weapons, killing them all. The news then spread to other cities leading to open revolt throught Sicily. "By the time the furious anger at their insolence had drunk its fill of blood, the French had given up to the Sicilians not only their ill-gotten riches, but their lives as well".
According to one legend, that has no source or attribution, the rebellion started after a Sicilian woman went to a church in Palermo to look for her young daughter, who had spent the whole day there praying, only to find her being raped in the church by a French soldier - whereupon the mother then ran into the streets, shouting Ma fia! Ma fia! (meaning "My daughter! My daughter!" in medieval Sicilian dialect). Some have claimed that this tale provides a plausible explanation as to where the word "Mafia" might have originated.
Taking advantage of the revolt, King Peter III of Aragon launched a successful invasion, becoming also Peter I of Sicily.
Charles remained in control of the mainland Kingdom of Naples until his death in 1285, and his heirs continued to reign there until Peter's successors reunited the two territories in 1442.
References
- Steven Runciman (1958),The Sicilian Vespers, ISBN 0521437741 - Considered a classic of history.
- Leonardo Bruni (1416), History of the Florentine People, Harvard, 2001, ISBN 0674005066 - Regarded as the first history book to be called "modern", and the first modern historian, it also happens to cover the events of this period.
