War of the Sicilian Vespers

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War of the Sicilian Vespers

A scene of the Sicilian Vesper by Francesco Hayez

1282–1302
Date
Location The Mediterranean; primarily Sicily,
the Mezzogiorno, Aragon, and Catalonia
Result Division of the kingdom of Sicily into Aragonese
Trinacria and Angevin Naples

Belligerents

Crown of Aragon Angevin Kingdom of

Naples
Kingdom of Trinacria

Byzantine Empire Kingdom of France

Kingdom of Majorca

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War of the Sicilian Vespers
The War of the Sicilian Vespers or just War of the Vespers was a conflict that started with the
insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou in 1282 and ended in 1302 with the Peace
of Caltabellotta. It was fought in Sicily, Catalonia (the Aragonese Crusade) and elsewhere in the
western Mediterranean between, on one side, the Angevin Charles of Anjou, his son Charles II, the kings
of France, and the Papacy, and on the other side, the kings of Aragon. The war resulted in the division of
the old Kingdom of Sicily; at Caltabellotta, Charles II was confirmed as king of the peninsular territories
of Sicily (the Kingdom of Naples), while Frederick III was confirmed as king of the island territories
(the Kingdom of Trinacria).

Contents

 1Background

 2Aragonese invasion of Italy

 3Aragonese Crusade

 4Sicily against Naples and Aragon

 5Popular culture

 6Notes

 7Sources

o 7.1Primary

o 7.2Secondary

Background[edit]
Main article: Sicilian Vespers
Sicily had been part of a Kingdom of Sicily, which also encompassed the southern Italian peninsula,
since the early 12th century, when Roger II of Sicily defeated the Italian mainland barons and was
elected king by the pope. His reign had been inherited by Frederick II of Sicily, whose son Manfred was
however ousted by the French invasion of Charles I of Anjou in 1266. The French rule soon assumed a
repressive and ferocious character.
On Easter Monday (30 March) 1282, at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo, at evening
prayer (vespers), a Frenchman harassed a Sicilian woman. Accounts differ as to what the harassment
entailed, who the woman was, and who the Frenchman was.
This single event led to the massacre of four thousand Frenchmen over the course of the next six weeks.
The King of Sicily at the time, Charles I, was an Angevin, and his French followers had a legacy of
mistreating the native people of Sicily, especially while Charles was away on one of his many absences.
Only a few officials notable for their good conduct were spared; and the city of Messina held out for
Charles. But through the diplomatic errors of the vicar, Herbert of Orléans, Messina revolted on April 28
under the command of Captain of the People Alaimo da Lentini (it). Herbert retreated to the castle
of Mategriffon and the crusader fleet stationed in the harbour was burned.
The physician John of Procida acted on behalf of Peter of Aragon,[1] the heir of Manfred in right of his
wife. John had been a loyal servant of Manfred's and had fled to Aragon after Charles' success at
Tagliacozzo. John travelled to Sicily to stir up discontent in favour of Peter and thence
to Constantinople to procure the support of Michael VIII Palaeologus. Michael refused to aid the
Aragonese king without papal approval and so John voyaged to Rome and there gained the consent
of Pope Nicholas III, who feared the ascent of Charles in the Mezzogiorno. John of Procida then
returned to Barcelona and the pope promptly died, to be replaced by Simon de Brie, a Frenchman and an
ally of Charles.

Aragonese invasion of Italy[edit]

Peter III of Aragon disembarks at Trapani.

Soon after the Vespers itself, the Sicilians turned to Peter of Aragon to deliver them from French
dominion. An Aragonese fleet under Peter himself had landed at Collo, now in eastern Algeria, and to
those troops the Sicilians sent envoys. Peter was offered the throne of Sicily and accepted. Simon de
Brie, who had taken the name Pope Martin IV, had meanwhile refused to help the Sicilian communes
and the rebels were excommunicated, as was the Byzantine emperor and the Ghibellines of northern
Italy.
Charles gathered his forces, abandoning Crusading hopes, in Calabria and made a landing near Messina
and began a siege. Five months after the Vespers, on 30 August, Peter landed at Trapani. He quickly
marched into Palermo and, on 4 September, received the homage of the Sicilians and confirmed their
ancient privileges. Only the vacancy of the Palermitan archdiocese prevented a coronation. Charles was
still besieging Messina when Peter's forces first met him. Charles was forced to vacate the isle by the end
of October and was thenceforth restricted to the mainland. The pope then excommunicated the
Aragonese king and deprived him of his kingdom (18 November).
Peter pressed his advantage and by February 1283 he had taken most of the Calabrian coastline. Charles,
perhaps feeling desperate, sent letters to Peter demanding they resolve the conflict by personal combat.
The invader accepted and Charles returned to France to arrange the duel. Both kings chose six knights to
settle matters of places and dates. A duel was scheduled for 1 June at Bordeaux. A hundred knights
would accompany each side and Edward I of England would adjudge the contest; the English king,
heeding the pope, refused to take part.[2] Peter left John of Procida in charge of Sicily and returned via his
own kingdom to Bordeaux, which he entered in disguise to evade a suspected French ambush. Needless
to say, no combat ever took place and Peter returned to a very troubled Spain.
While Peter and Charles had been pursuing justice by duel in France, the Catalan admiral Roger of
Lauria (Ruggiero di Lauria) continued the war in Italy on behalf of Peter. He had been ravaging the
Calabrian coast and keeping up a strong naval presence. Charles left Bordeaux for Provence and there
sent out a fleet for Naples (his capital in Italy at the time and for the rest of his dynasty). Roger
took Malta and defeated the Angevin-Provençal fleet near the islands in the Battle of Malta. Roger then
drew Charles the Lame, the son and heir apparent of the Neapolitan king and the Prince of Salerno, out
of Naples' port. Roger utterly routed him on the high seas, destroying the whole Angevin navy in
the Battle of the Gulf of Naples. Roger took the prince and 42 ships captive to Messina. Charles the elder
arrived in Italy at that time, but died soon after in 1285 and the war in Italy was put on hold by the lack
of leadership on both sides: Charles' successor was in chains and Peter was dealing with a new menace,
the Aragonese Crusade.[3]

Aragonese Crusade[edit]
Main article: Aragonese Crusade
In 1284, Pope Martin granted the kingdom of Aragon to Charles,
Count of Valois, the brother of the French king and great nephew of
Charles of Sicily. Papal sanction was given to a war—crusade—
which historian H. J. Chaytor describes as "perhaps the most unjust,
unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by
the Capetian monarchy."[3] While Roger of Lauria was still
solidifying Peter's gains in Sicily and Calabria, Peter himself had
entered France clandestinely to duel Charles, but that failing,
returned to his Spanish domains, while Charles re-entered Italy,
where he died.
Peter was dealing with domestic unrest at the time the French
prepared to invade. He took Albarracín from the rebellious
noble Juan Núñez I de Lara, renewed the alliance with Sancho IV of
Castile, and attacked Tudela in an attempt to prevent the king of
Navarre, Philip I, who was the son of the French king, Philip III the
Bold, from invading on that front.
In 1283, Peter's brother, King James II of Majorca, joined the French
and recognised their suzerainty over Montpellier giving them free
passage through the Balearic Islands and Roussillon. James had also
inherited the county of Roussillon and thus stood between the
dominions of the French and Aragonese monarchs. Peter had
opposed James' inheritance as a younger son and reaped the
consequence of such rivalry in the crusade. In 1284, the first French
armies under King Philip and Count Charles entered Roussillon.
They included 16,000 cavalry, 17,000 crossbowmen, and 100,000
infantry, along with 100 ships in south French ports.[4] Though the
French had James' support, the local populace rose against them. The
city of Elne was valiantly defended by the so-called bâtard de
Roussillon ("bastard of Roussillon"), the illegitimate son of Nuño
Sánchez, late count of Roussillon (1212–1242). Eventually he was
overcome and the cathedral was burnt, after which the royal forces
continued their advance.
In 1285, Philip entrenched himself before Girona in an attempt to
besiege it. Despite a strong resistance the city was taken. Charles
was crowned there, but without an actual crown. The French soon
experienced a reversal, however, at the hands of Roger de Lauria,
back from the Italian theatre of the drawn-out conflict. The French
fleet was defeated and destroyed at the Battle of Les Formigues.
Further the French camp was hit hard by an epidemic of dysentery,
and Philip himself was afflicted. The heir to the French throne, the
king of Navarre, opened negotiations with Peter for free passage for
the royal family through the Pyrenees. But the troops were not
offered such passage and were devastated at the Battle of the Col de
Panissars. The king of France himself died at Perpignan, the capital
of James of Majorca, who had fled in fear after being confronted by
Peter, and was buried in Narbonne.
Peter died on 2 November 1285, in the same year as his two royal
foes, Charles and Philip. His deathbed absolution occurred after he
declared that his conquests had been in the name of his familial
claims and never against the claims of the church. After a few more
years of general warfare, marked by the Battle of the Counts on 23
June 1287, where the Angevins were defeated near Naples,
the Treaty of Tarascon of 1291 officially restored Aragon to his
heir, Alfonso, and lifted the ban of the church.

Sicily against Naples and Aragon[edit]

With the Treaty of Tarascon, the war with Aragon ended, but it had
little effect with the death of Alfonso within months. Alfonso's
brother, James I of Sicily, inherited Aragon and united the two
realms. In 1295, James signed the Treaty of Anagni whereby he gave
up Sicily to the papacy, with Pope Boniface VIII granting it to
Charles. However, Peter III's third son, Frederick, the regent of
Sicily, refused to acquiesce in the treaty, as did the Sicilian populace
and they proclaimed him king. With this, war was renewed between
Aragonese Sicily and Angevin Naples, between Frederick and
Charles.
The treaty, however, obligated James to enter the war in assistance
of Charles and he sent his fleet from Catalonia to harass his brother's
coasts. Frederick went on the offensive quickly and invaded Calabria
in 1296. He seized several towns, encouraged revolt in Naples,
negotiated with the Ghibellines of Tuscany and Lombardy, and
assisted the house of Colonna against the pope.
James was very serious about fulfilling his part of the treaty of 1295
and enforcing a peace. In this he had the support of John of Procida
and Roger of Lauria, his father's ablest men. On 4 July 1299, James
himself led his fleet with Roger of Lauria and defeated his brother at
the Battle of Cape Orlando. Meanwhile, Charles' sons, Robert (who
had married James' daughter) and Philip, had landed in Sicily and
captured Catania. Philip moved to besiege Trapani, but was defeated
and captured by Frederick at the Battle of Falconaria. Frederick
multiplied his successes in Calabria. On 14 June 1300, Roger of
Lauria defeated the Sicilians again at the Battle of Ponza. Frederick
himself was captured in battle.
In 1302, Charles of Valois came down into Italy at the behest of
Pope Boniface. He landed in Sicily, but his army was ravaged by the
plague and forced to sue for peace. On 19 August, the Peace of
Caltabellotta was signed and Frederick was recognised as king over
Sicily, with the title of King of Trinacria. Charles was recognised as
king over the peninsula, with the title of King of Sicily, usually
rendered by historians as "King of Naples," for such was his capital.
In May 1303, the pope ratified the treaty and Frederick paid him
tribute. Marriage was arranged between Frederick and Charles'
daughter Eleanor.
Popular culture[edit]
 The 1838 French play Les vêpres siciliennes written by Eugène
Scribe and Charles Duveyrier. In 1855 Giuseppe Verdi set it to
music as the opera I vespri siciliani. In 1949 an Italian
film Sicilian Uprising was released, directed by Giorgio Pastina.

Notes[edit]
1. Jump up^ Chaytor, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia .
1933. Chapter 7, pp. 102-3.

2. Jump up^ Chaytor, p 104.

3. ^ Jump up to:a b Chaytor, p. 105.

4. Jump up^ Chaytor, p 106.

Sources[edit]
Primary[edit]
The Rebellamentu di Sichilia, a Sicilian tract of 1290, is available
online in three editions:

 Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia. Codice della Biblioteca regionale

di Palermo. Edited by Filippo Evola (1882).

 Le vespro siciliano. Cronaca siciliana anonima intitolata Lu

rebellamentu di Sichilia, codice esistente nell' Archivio
municipale di Catania.Edited by Pasquale Castorina (1882).

 Sicily's Rebellion against King Charles. Translation of the text

of the "Rebellamentu" by Louis Mendola (New York
2015) ISBN 9781943639038.
The Vinuta di lu re Iapicu in Catania, another Sicilian history,
by Atanasiu di Iaci, is available online:

 Romanzo siculo del 1287. Edited by Bernardino Biondelli

(1856).
Secondary[edit]

 Runciman, Steven. The Sicilian Vespers. 1958. ISBN 0-521-

43774-1

 Bruni, Leonardo. History of the Florentine People.

1416. ISBN 0-674-00506-6 (Harvard, 2001)
  Abulafia, David. The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms, 1200-
1500. 1997. ISBN 0-582-07820-2

 Chaytor, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. 1933.

 Ramon Muntaner, Chronicle, tr. Lady Goodenough (available in

PDF format).

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