SICILY AND SOUTHERN ITALY IN AN AGE OF DISORDERarrival in 1282 it had been clear that the Sicilian rebels
saw their aim as the reconstitution of a 'national' monarchy,
not the creation of a Catalan-Aragonese dependency. For his
part, James II of Aragon made cynical use of his own agree-
ment with the papacy; he provided some troops to help the
Angevins fight his brother, but also maintained a cordial
correspondence with Frederick. The best outcome would be
the maintenance of Frederick in power, and the maintenance
of peace between Aragon, France, Naples and the papacy, just
as was achieved at the Treaty of Caltabellotta ( 1302). There
followed a series of attempts to reinvigorate religious life in
an island which had long been deprived of the adequate
service of priests, during long years of interdict; moral reform
involved not merely the planned seclusion of the Jews of
Palermo so long as they refused to undergo conversion, but
also legislation to ensure that slaves were given the chance to
enter the Latin church, and that they were treated humanely.
Measures were also taken, more successfully in the short than
in the long term, to stimulate the economy, notably by the
reform of weights and measures and of commercial taxation,
both of which had suffered from lack of uniformity; a large
number of edicts confirmed the right of the principal towns
to exemption from internal tolls; the War of the Vespers had
seriously damaged important sectors of the economy of an
island that lived in part from its grain trade, an enterprise
that depended on both internal and external peace. High
intentions were, however, increasingly frustrated by the in-
ternal strife that developed between the Chiaramonte clan
and its Palizzi rivals in Sicily.
Frederick's own failure to observe the conditions of Cal-
tabellotta (as interpreted by the house of Anjou) provided
the main excuse for repeated Angevin invasions, from^1312
onwards; conflict also continued, by proxy, within southern
Greece, where pro-Angevin and pro-Sicilian factions emerged,
notably the Catalan duchy of Athens, under nominal Sicilian
obedience. As early as 1322 Frederick elevated his son Peter
II to the throne as co-king, thereby trampling on the stipu-
lation that the island would revert to Naples after his death;
Angevin expeditions into Sicily followed in 1325-27. The
elevation of Peter II did not prevent rebellion the moment
Frederick III died; and Peter II ruled alone only for five years
(during which the Palizzi were thrown out of Sicily) before