Sicilian Vespers

Timeline

1. 1281–1282Sicily · SicilyCharles I of Anjou placed tax administration and justice in the hands of French officials, burdening Sicilian towns heavily. Charles simultaneously assembled a fleet in southern Italy preparing to attack Byzantium; islanders feared further requisitions and military supplies would deepen their hardship, and anti-Angevin sentiment spread in Palermo, Messina, and other cities.
2. 1282Around the Church of the Holy Spirit, Palermo · PalermoAt vespers on March 30, 1282 (Easter Monday), a clash broke out between Sicilians and French soldiers outside the Church of the Holy Spirit in Palermo, quickly turning into attacks on French residents. Overnight the uprising spread across the city, and the Angevin garrison lost control of Palermo.
3. 1282Messina · SicilyNews from Palermo spread across the island, and most Sicilian towns expelled Angevin garrisons. The strategic strait port of Messina joined in April, cutting off Charles's nearest reinforcement route from Calabria; the uprising turned from an urban revolt into an island-wide change of regime.
4. 1282Trapani to Palermo · SicilyPeter III, claiming his wife Constance's Hohenstaufen inheritance rights, landed at Trapani on August 30 and immediately entered Palermo, where he was recognized as King of Sicily by the islanders. Angevin legal and actual rule over the island collapsed simultaneously.
5. 1282Messina · SicilyCharles I led an army from the mainland to besiege Messina but failed to take the city and lifted the siege in autumn. Sicily passed to the Aragonese side, while Naples and the southern mainland remained Angevin, and the War of the Vespers unfolded from there. This entry records only the uprising and the change of hands that year; the subsequent back-and-forth is covered in existing aftermath entries.