Today in History: The Sicilian Vespers

On this day (March 30) in 1282 the uprising called the Sicilian Vespers began. Sicily was ruled by the Charles of Anjou, an important Frenchman and member of the Capetian dynasty who had conquered Sicily at the bequest of the pope sixteen years earlier. He brought many Frenchmen with him. The uprising began at a party at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Easter Monday night. Many French officials joined the festivities. One of them tried to drag off a Sicilian woman who had been resisting his advances. Her husband killed the official with a knife. When his comrades attempted to get vengeance the crowd fell upon them and killed them as well. Then they began running through the town of Palermo calling for all of the French to be killed. Taverns were invaded as well as French homes and men, women and children were murdered. They even invaded monasteries and convents looking for the French and used a pronunciation test to determine who to kill. If you couldn’t pronounce the word “ciciri” correctly you were deemed French and put to death. The Sicilian wives of Frenchmen were also butchered. By the end of the first night, 2000 French were dead. Within six weeks, the number of French men and women killed was approximately 13,000.