Sicilian Vespers

Sicilian Vespers, the name given to the massacre of the French in Sicily on Easter Monday (March 30) 1282, the signal for the commencement of which was the first stroke of the vespers-bell. Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. of France, had deprived the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Naples and Sicily; but his cruelty and tyranny, his oppressive taxation, and the brutality of his followers excited among the Sicilians the deadliest animosity. So on that evening the inhabitants of Palermo, enraged (according to the common story) at a gross outrage offered by a French soldier to a young Sicilian bride, suddenly rose against their oppressors, and put to the sword every man, woman, and child to the number of 8000. This example was followed by Messina and the other towns, and the massacre became general throughout the island: the French were hunted like wild beasts, and dragged even from the churches. The 600th anniversary of the Sicilian Vespers was celebrated with much enthusiasm in 1882, Garibaldi (shortly before his death) having come to Palermo on purpose to be present, though he was too feeble to take part in the ceremonies. See Amari, La Guerra del Vespro Siciliano (Eng. trans. by Earl of Ellesmere, 1850).