Thus the Island was the jewel in the crown of the Mediterranean Sea and the ancient world, holding the monopoly on trade as well as culture and beauty.During the German occupation, Sicily became the cradle of Frederick II's empire, from which the court at Palermo radiated a new and growing culture of literature and science. It was in this period that a written language, combining the Italian spoken in the area with the elevated French Provençal language of the court, was first attempted. Thus the Sicilian Poetic School was born. The court at Palermo and Sicily had become a melting pot of architecture, culture and language, in which the best of many worlds had been combined.
With the arrival of the French Angevins, this nucleus of learning and cultural development was checked. The new authorities established and remained in power from 1266 to 1285, their term in office culminating in the famous uprising of the"Vespri Siciliani" or"Sicilian Vespers", which definitively concluded his rule. Charles Ist's regime of police control, enforced conformity to the new government, high taxes, a luxurious court lifestyle, rule from the distant Naples and a despotic disregard for established noble families and their rights and customs, was overturned and the French Angevin dynasty was supplanted.
The trigger for this dramatic and bloody event happened at the hour of Vespers: a young married woman on her way to church was harassed by a French soldier. The young woman's husband, seized with rage, struck and killed the offending Frenchman, and a major skirmish ensued between French soldiers and Sicilian natives.
This event, perhaps symbolic of the way Sicilians felt their Island had been molested by French occupation, caused violent riots in Palermo before the city was finally declared an independent republic by the up-risers. The fires of unrest and revolution had been sparked, causing a chain reaction across the island as the French fled before incensed and vengeful Sicilian citizens.
City after city rioted and rejected French rule. Only Messina - a stronghold of the Angevin dynasty which had benefited from the French occupation - displayed loyalty to Charles' cause. The Pope Martin IV, who had originally secured Charles' power in Sicily in 1260, tried to dampen the rebellion and instructed Sicilians to submit to Angevin dominion. He was unsuccessful.
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