KETCHES 



7, 









Charles. The privileges Charles had worn to the Pope ho 

 would restore were ut only kopt back, but the privileges tliat 

 d were also taken away. Tho rev.-n.. 



y tin- champion ui the church, and tint wolf whom 

 .^hted to liouour with a sheep's cloth,: 

 ii 111 tho hoilir-i : .1 '* hunii-i. The liaroiw 



friendly t<> thn Angevin* were deprived of their property on the' 

 that they had acquir. .1 it through iM mil' red, who li.ul 

 OO power to confer it; and those barons who could not prove 

 themselves free from all taint of treason were deprived as 

 traitors. The French s< enriched with Italian spoils, 



* now and alien nobility was created ; feudalism in its harshest 

 form was thrust upon the people ; secret prison-houses sprang up 

 in hateful abundance; the voice of justice was stifled, and the 

 whole nation was ground down to misery under the iron heel of 

 a foreign despot. The taxes wore crushing, and most offen -i\ !_, 

 levied ; the eurrency was debased by the government, and then 

 called in at tho loss of the people ; heiresses were compelled to 

 marry needy Frenchmen ; estates were made wildernesses that 

 some French lord might hunt over them, while the owner was 

 forbidden on pain of death to kill a head of game. In their 

 domestic relations the poor peoplo were fearfully insulted. 

 Lawlessness, conscious of security, ran riot through the land, 

 and respected neither rank nor condition in gratifying its lust. 

 This was the rock on which the French dominion split, the rock 

 on which royalty in old Rome was dashed to pieces, tho rock 

 on which the power of " the wicked ten " was ground to powder. 

 There is a point beyond which human endurance will not go, 

 and that point had been reached by Sicilian sufferers and 

 French oppressors. Domestic outrage was the spark which 

 fired the train of Sicilian anger. 



Already the train was laid. The conduct of tho French had 

 been such that no one with a claim to manhood could endure 

 it, and at the risk of their lives men plotted against the 

 savage rule of the Duke of Anjou, trying by every means in 

 their power to provoke his enemies into action against him. 

 And his enemies were many. The Pope, who had enlisted him 

 in his service simply and solely to do despite to the Ghibelline 

 faction, supported him in his high-handed villanies till these 

 became directed against himself, and till the ambitious duke 

 sought by means of his Roman influence to over-ride even 

 in Rome the authority of the Pontiff King. Nicolas III. 

 was now (A.D. 1277) Pope, and seeing the drift of his pre- 

 decessor's most obedient, humble servant, took part with the 

 Frenchman's enemies to overthrow him. The Greek emperor, 

 Michael Palueologus, was among Charles's direst foes, for the 

 duke, fancying that he saw in the weakness of the Greek 

 empire an opportunity of seizing the Greek crown, made no 

 secret of his intention to win it if ho could, and openly prepared 

 the means of following up his pretensions by force. A third 

 strong foe was Peter III., King of Aragon, in whom the right 

 of Manfred and of Conradin survived. This prince, willing 

 enough to win an additional crown, provided he had not to fight 

 for it single-handed, but too prudent to risk what he had for 

 sake of what he might not have, had hitherto turned a deaf ear 

 to the suggestions of the Sicilian exiles who suggested action 

 in support of his wife's claims. But now that the Pope and 

 the Greek Emperor were disposed to be actively hostile, the 

 Emperor of Germany passive, and the Neapolitans and Sicilians 

 murderously revengeful while the King of France, St. Louis, 

 was so much weakened by tho ruinous failure of his crusading 

 expedition into Africa as to be no longer feared Peter began to 

 think of stirring himself, and arrived at the conclusion that 

 Charles of Anjou was a consummate scoundrel and a robber. 

 An alliance was made between Peter, the Greek Emperor, and 

 the Pope, the last of whom confirmed, with authority at least as 

 great as that which had given the Two Sicilies to Charles, the 

 right of the Spaniard to the throne. The Sicilians were duly 

 apprised of what was going forward, and means were taken by 

 them to second the efforts of the allied sovereigns whenever the 

 signal of revolt should be raised. But the plot which was 

 thickening suddenly burst, not through any discovery on the 

 part of the French, not through any treachery on the part of 

 the Sicilians ; but simply because it could be concealed no 

 longer, because an act committed by a licentious French 

 soldier wan tho last straw which broke the patient back of 

 Sicilian forbearance. 



On Eaater Tuesday, the 31st of March, 1282, the Mile of the 



Paleraitans had pone to hear vespers at the Church of Han 

 Spirito ou Morrealo, a short distance from the town. The 

 weather was fine, and after service the people walked in a 

 pleasure-garden that vx.. . the church. Among the 



crowd were many officers of tho viceroy, Herbert of Orleans, 

 and a large sprinkling of French noldiery. An order of the 

 vireroy had forbidden Sicilian* to carry arm*, to that the 

 pi ople were weaponless, while the French wore their usual 

 anna. According to custom, the French swaggered, and jostled 

 tho unoffending inlander.-,, uttering now and then insulting 

 speeches to the men, and Leh^viug insultingly by word and 

 towards the won. <>ked by their behaviour, some 



of the Sicilian young men remonstrated, and that so boldly that 

 nch exclaimed, " They must have concealed arm-, or 

 th<y would not speak so." A search wan made for arms upon 

 rsons of tho remonstrants, and one soldier, named 

 Drouet, more brutal than his companions, walked up to where 

 a beautiful girl was walking with htr parents and her betrothed, 

 and accusing her of carrying concealed weapons, forthwith 

 began to search her by thrusting hi hand into her bosom, 

 attempting as he did so to kiss her. The maiden fainted ; and 

 before she could bo brought to again a young man, whose name 

 unfortunately is not known, had knocked the Frenchman down 

 and killed him with his own sword, shouting as he slew him, 

 " Death to the French ! Down with the French !" A horrible 

 scene ensued ; the French defended themselves with (lonfago 

 and ability, and many a Sicilian fell ; but of the foreigners a con- 

 temporary historian tersely says, "they numbered two hundred, 

 and two hundred died." 



Like a thunder-chip the voice echoed through the country, 

 and roused the hearts of all. Every man's hand was against, 

 the aliens. Implements of husbandry, of household use, served 

 the place and did the work of more warlike weap<> 



Excited and bloody, with the dead men's swords in their 

 hands, the Sicilians rushed into Palermo. The terrible shout 

 of " Death to tho French ! " resounded in the streets, and er 

 night closed in upon Easter Tuesday 2,000 gashed corpses of 

 Frenchmen who that day had insolently ruled, were flung out 

 to be a prey to the beasts of the field. Palermo was- seized by 

 the insurgents, every foreigner was driven forth. Giovanni di 

 San Remigio, the governor, escaped only by a miracle, and he 

 escaped but to fall the next day in a sortie from the castle of 

 Vicari upon men whose offer to send him and his followers by 

 safe conduct to Provence he had scornfully rejected. 



The ferocity of the outbreak left the Sicilians without hope 

 of reconciliation. They had gone thus far, they must go yet 

 farther. In a sort of parliament, hastily convened at Palermo, 

 the regal form of government was renounced, and a common- 

 wealth, under the protection of the Church, was declared to be 

 the new constitution. The example set by Palermo and a few 

 neighbouring places was quickly followed by the most impor- 

 tant towns in the island, even Messina being obliged, in spite 

 of the viceroy's presence, to follow suit. Flying columns 

 scoured the country, killing every Frenchmen that was found ; 

 indeed, such was the fury, that Saba Malaspina says it seemed 

 as if every man had a father, son, or brother to avenge, or was 

 possessed with the belief that in slaying a Frenchmen he did 

 God service. An oath was taken to die rather than serve 

 the French, and in a week after Drouet insulted the Sicilian 

 maiden the French dominion was an historical event in Sicily. 



The allied sovereigns were fortunately able, although their 



! action had been precipitated, to second with material help the 



I efforts of the insurgents. A Spanish fleet, fitted out with the 



; Greek emperor's money, swept the sea of the squadron which 



Cl arles of Anjou had reckoned on to carry his re-conquering 



I army into the rebellious province ; and Papal money supplied 



i the Sicilians with the arms and munitions which only they 



wanted to enable them to keep what they had won. Repeated 



and strenuous efforts were made by the Duke of Anjon to 



recover his lost ground, and for a long while he besieged 



I Messina in person with a powerful army and fleet; but hi:- 



hour had struck with the vesper chime on Easter Tuesday. 



, His fleet was destroyed, his army was terribly mauled, and he 



himself narrowly escaped capture at the hands of those he had 



come to subdue. Peter III. of Aragon reigned in his stead, 



and the island of Sicily knew him no more. 



The point of tho Spanish ambassador's reply to Henry 1\ . 

 of France is no longer difficult to be seen. 



