THE WESTERN MEDJTERR-'1.1\EAN KINGDOMS 1200-l'lOOordinatione regni Sicilie, 1285), Honorius IV proclaimed signi-
ficant changes in south Italian administration, intended to
remove the 'abuses' attributed to Frederick II and Charles
I and to return to the good old days of William II the Nor-
man.~ This appeal to old law might easily be taken for a
formal statement, echoing the phrases of previous rulers of
the south; but Honorius IV's bull was unusually specific in
detailing the abuses. As well as providing new regulations,
the bull sought to forbid excessive financial demands by the
crown: the general taxes known as the collecta, first levied
by Frederick II, were to be reduced and controlled; some
Hohenstaufen checks on feudatories were abolished or modi-
fied, notably controls over inheritance to fiefs; the towns
too would benefit from lower demands for taxes and for
military or naval services, while royal control over the move-
ment of goods was also reduced. These measures in one sense
strengthened the Angevins in Naples and Apulia, where the
support of the coastal cities and of the barons was desper-
ately needed. What is less clear is whether Honorius IV was
strengthening the crown in the ways it most urgently needed.
A dynasty at war needs money, yet less was to be found if
the strict letter of the papal constitution were observed. The
Angevins needed also men and victuals for their fleet, but
these too were less easy to obtain. In one way the papacy did
try to ensure the Angevin monarchy could find adequate
resources: alienation of the crown's own lands was forbidden.
But in fact the greater part of the old royal demesne had
been lost along with Sicily: the rich grain estates of the island
were now in Aragonese hands, contributing to the war fin-
ances of Charles II' s deadliest enemies. :
It is here, in fact, that a crucial issue in the modern his-
toriography of the Vespers comes to the fore. Brese's notion
of the Vespers as a key moment defining the future of Sicily
as an 'underdeveloped' region, a 'colonial' society whose
economy was dominated by outside interests - notably the
Genoese and the Catalans with their involvement in the
- L. Cadier, Italian edition prepared by F. Giunta, I. 'amministrazionr della
Sicilia ar1gioina (Palermo. 1974), pp. 159-76. - M. De Boilard, 'Problemes de subsistances dans un etat medieval: le
marche et le prix des cereales au royaume angn·in de Naples'. Alma/PI,
10 (1938), pp. 483-501.