War of the Sicilian Vespers
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207095326
2008-04-21T11:35:10Z
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{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict= War of the Sicilian Vespers
|image= [[Image:Francesco Hayez 023.jpg|300px]]
|caption= ''Sicilian Vespers'' (1846), by [[Francesco Hayez]].
|date= 1282 – 1302
|place= The [[Mediterranean]]; primarily [[Sicily]], the [[Mezzogiorno]], [[Aragon]], and [[Catalonia]]
|result= Division of the kingdom of Sicily into Aragonese Trinacria and Angevin Naples
|combatant1= [[Crown of Aragon]]<br/>[[Kingdom of Sicily|Kingdom of Trinacria]]
|combatant2= [[House of Capet-Anjou|Angevin]] [[Kingdom of Naples]]<br/>[[Kingdom of France]]<br/>[[Kingdom of Majorca]]
|commander1=
|commander2=
|strength1=
|strength2=
|casualties1=
|casualties2=
|notes=
}}
{{Campaignbox War of the Sicilian Vespers}}
The '''War of the '''('''Sicilian''')''' Vespers''' started with the insurrection of the [[Sicilian Vespers]] against [[Charles I of Sicily|Charles of Anjou]] in 1282 and finally ended with the [[peace of Caltabellotta]] in 1302. It was fought in [[Sicily]], [[Catalonia]] (the [[Aragonese Crusade]]) and elsewhere in the western [[Mediterranean]] between, on the one side, the [[House of Capet-Anjou|Angevin]] claimants Charles of Anjou and his son, [[Charles II of Naples|Charles II]] and the [[kings of France]], their relatives, backed by the [[Papacy]] and, on the other side, the [[kings of Aragon]].
==Background==
:{{main|Sicilian Vespers}}
<!---More background is probably necessary to explain the complex situation which existed in the Mediterranean at the time, i.e. Byzantines, Latin Empire, Treaty of Viterbo, papacy, Aragonese, etc.--->
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]]. Herbert retreated to the castle of [[Mategriffon]] and the [[Crusade]]r fleet stationed in the harbour was burned.
The Italian physician [[John of Procida]] acted on behalf of [[Peter III of Aragon|Peter of Aragon]],<ref>Chaytor, H. J. ''A History of Aragon and Catalonia ''. 1933. [http://libro.uca.edu/chaytor/hac7.htm Chapter 7], pp 102-3.</ref> the heir of [[Manfred of Sicily|Manfred]] in right of his wife. John had been a loyal servant of Manfred's and had fled to Aragon after Charles [[Battle of Tagliacozzo|success at Tagliacozzo]]. John travelled to Sicily to stir up the discontents 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 [[Pope Martin IV|Simon de Brie]], a Frenchman and an ally of Charles.
==Aragonese invasion of Italy==
[[Image:Arrivo aragonesi.jpg|thumb|360px|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. Pope Martin 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.<ref>Chaytor, p 104.</ref> 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]] had been continuing the war in Italy. He had been ravaging the Calabrian coast and keeping up a strong naval presence. Charles had left Bordeaux for Provence and there sent out a fleet for [[Naples]] (his capital in Italy at the time and for the future of his dynasty). Roger took [[Malta]] and defeated the Angevin-Provençal fleet near the islands in the [[Battle of Malta]]. Roger then drew [[Charles II of Naples|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 forty two 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]].<ref>Chaytor, p 105.</ref>
==Aragonese Crusade==
:{{main|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 [[House of Capet|Capetian monarchy]]."<ref>Chaytor, p 105.</ref> 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 had died.
Peter was dealing with domestic unrest at the time when the French were preparing invasion. He took [[Albarracín]] from the rebellious noble [[Juan Núñez de Lara]] and he renewed the alliance with [[Sancho IV of Castile]] and attacked [[Tudela]] in an attempt to prevent the [[king of Navarre]], [[Philip IV of France|Philip I]], 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]] and gave them free passage through the [[Balearic Islands]] and [[Roussillon]]. James had also inherited the [[Counts of Roussillon|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.<ref>Chaytor, p 106.</ref> 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; the royal forces progressed.
In 1285, Philip entrenched himself before [[Gerona]] in an attempt to besiege it. The resistance was strong, but 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]]. As well, the French camp was hit hard by an epidemic of [[dysentery]]. 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 decimated 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 III of Aragon|Alfonso]], and lifted the ban of the church.
==Sicily against Naples and Aragon==
[[Image:Roger of Lauria.jpg|thumb|Roger of Lauria.]]
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 III of Sicily|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 [[Ghibelline]]s 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 of Naples|Robert]] (who had married James' daughter) and [[Philip I of Taranto|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 decimated 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.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
*[[Steven Runciman|Runciman, Steven]]. ''The Sicilian Vespers''. 1958. ISBN 0-521-43774-1
*[[Leonardo Bruni|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. ''[http://libro.uca.edu/chaytor/achistory.htm A History of Aragon and Catalonia]''. 1933.
*[[Ramon Muntaner]], [http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf Chronicle,]tr. Lady Goodenough (available in PDF format).
{{Sicily}}
[[Category:13th century conflicts]]
[[Category:14th century conflicts]]
[[Category:High Middle Ages]]
[[Category:History of Sicily]]
[[Category:Military history of Catalonia]]
[[Category:Warfare of the Medieval era]]
[[Category:Wars involving Naples]]
[[Category:Wars involving France]]
[[Category:13th century in Italy]]
[[Category:14th century in Italy]]
[[it:Vespri siciliani]]
[[sr:Рат сицилијанске вечерње]]