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Scienze della comunicazione Università degli Studi di TeramoPhD Program in Historical studies
Scienze della comunicazione Università degli Studi di TeramoPhD Program in Historical studies

Kingdom of Sicily

Palazzo Reale PalermoThe Kingdom of Sicily was born after the Norman conquest of the island, previously subject to Arab rule.  In 1130 Roger II of Hauteville (1095-1154) was crowned king in Palermo. Thus a kingdom was created which, apart from Sicily, also comprised all of the south of Italy. Norman domination was followed by that of the Swabians and then by the House of Anjou which ended with the famous revolt of the Sicilian vespers (31 March 1282) and the ensuing war. After the said event the Island was governed by a representative of the Aragonese dynasty (from 1296), and then definitively it became part of the Kingdom of Aragon (1412). In 1442 the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were brought together by Alfonso V the Magnanimous (1396-1458). The distinction which was not only nominal between both entities however would only be recognised in 1816, with the advent of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies. Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries, first under the Aragonese then as part of the empire of Charles V (1500-1558) and, finally, in the system of the Spanish monarchy inaugurated by Philip II of Habsburg (1527-1598), Sicily was governed by viceroys. During this period, as a reaction to the style of Spanish government, there were several uprisings, the most important of which was between 1647 and 1649, when Palermo and a large part of Sicily rose up against the government of IV (1605-1665). From 1674 to 1678, there was an anti-Spanish revolt in Messina. After the death of Charles II of Habsburg (1661-1700) and the ensuing War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713), the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) put Sicily under the rule of the Duchy of Savoy. With the Treaty of the Hague in 1720, Sicily was ceded to Austria. After the armed reconquest of the part of the Spanish (1734), Naples and Sicily passed under the House of Bourbon with the Treaty of Vienna (1738), thus establishing the bases of an independant kingdom. (photo: The Palace of the Normans, the seat of power for the viceroys in the early modern period).

Read more:

  • F. Benigno, G. Giarrizzo (a cura di), Storia della Sicilia, 5 voll., Roma 1999.