Sicilian Vespers, Part I: Uprising

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In the middle of the 13th Century, a violent uprising began on the island of Sicily in an attempt to oust the French King, Charles I of Anjou, that left approximately 13,000 people dead over the course of six weeks. This violent uprising also sparked a wider pan-Mediterranean war between the Spanish crown of Aragon, the Angevin Kingdom of Naples, the Byzantine Empire, and the Kingdom of France. In part one of this two-part series, Josh explores the causes of the uprising and the immediate aftermath. 

Podcaster: Josh

Further Reading

Norman Housley, The Italian Crusades: The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades Against the Christian Lay Powers, 1254-1343, Oxford University Press (1982).

---, The Later Crusades: From Lyons to Alcazar, 1274-1580, Oxford University Press (1992).

Steven Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press (1958).

Brett E. Whalen, The Two Powers: The Papacy, the Empire, and the Struggle for Sovereignty in the Thirteenth Century, University of Pennsylvania Press, (2019).

Related Content
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Sicilian Vespers, Part II: The Massacre and the War of the Vespers

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)