Sicilian Vespers

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The Sicilian Vespers is the name given to a rebellion in Sicily in 1282 against the rule of the Angevin king Charles I of Naples, who had taken control of the island with Papal support in 1266. It was the beginning of the eponymous War of the 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 ambitions, which included the overthrow of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. His French officials (who governed Sicily badly) mistreated native Sicilians with rape, theft and murder.

There are two interpretations, not necessarily exclusive, of events. One stresses the weltpolitik of Michael Palaeologus and the Aragonese king Peter III, Manfred's son-in-law, in fomenting the revolt; the other concentrates on the unpopularity of Charles's rule among native Sicilians. The latter view gained popularity during the Risorgimento when it was propounded by the patriot Michele Amari. Regarding the former, Michael VIII in his autobiography wrote: "Should I dare to claim that I was God's instrument to bring freedom to the Sicilians, then I should only be stating the truth."

The event is 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. Thousands of Sicily's French inhabitants were massacred over the next six weeks. The events that started the uprising are not known for sure but 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 woman 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 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 spread to other cities leading to revolt throughout 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 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). Although some have claimed that this is a plausible explanation of the origins of the word "Mafia", it reeks of folk etymology.

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 territories in 1442.

[edit] Contributions to Culture

• One of Giuseppe Verdi's most musically acclaimed operas, Les vêpres siciliennes is based on this conflict.

[edit] Trivia

In the 20th Century, the name Sicilian Vespers would come to refer to the night of September 10, 1931, when gangster Lucky Luciano ordered the deaths of several Mafia soldiers loyal to crime boss Salvatore Maranzano and his rival, Joseph Masseria, ending the Castellammarese War in New York City.

[edit] References

• Steven Runciman (1958),The Sicilian Vespers, ISBN 0-521-43774-1. Considered a classic of history.
• Leonardo Bruni (1416), History of the Florentine People, Harvard, 2001, ISBN 0-674-00506-6. 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.