THE RISE AND FALL OF CHARLES OF ANJOUbased on a north Italian model with which they were already
in many cases very familiar.^36
For Henri Brese, the Vespers demonstrate that out of this
new population of Latin and Latinised Sicilians had emerged
a genuine 'sicilitude' [Sicilianness]; he speaks of 'une nation
sicilienne', with a political consciousness of its own, distinct
from the population of mainland southern Italy.^37 The revolt
was, it is true, an island revolt, and the more extensive main-
land territories did not rise up against the crown on the same
scale, though there were disturbances even in Naples itself.
This is often explained by the greater generosity of the crown
towards the mainland cities, many of which benefited from
royal programmes of harbour building, including even the
inappropriately named port of Manfredonia. Royal neglect
of Sicily can also be measured in the lack of visits by Charles
to the island, except during the Tunis crusade; it is possible
that Charles was convinced the Sicilians were his enemies
long before 1282, and that the rebellion in favour of Con-
radin, which had been well supported in the island, led him
to show more favours elsewhere.
The loss of status of Palermo, once a royal capital, was
gradual, but the shift in the centre of gravity of the king-
dom from island to mainland had begun under Frederick II,
who had based himself increasingly at Foggia and Lucera in
south-eastern Italy. By Charles of Anjou's time Palermo had
even lost its function as the coronation capital of the king-
dom, and damage to the city's economic life is likely to have
resulted; the very fact that Palermo was no longer the centre
of government meant a loss of direct access to the king's pat-
ronage which disadvantaged the petty nobility and the urban
elite, accustomed to the benefits of royal favours in land
grants and the right to tax farms. Still, it cannot be stressed
enough that these changes were long-term ones, which were
not simply the result of Charles's own policy decisions.
- See now Catalioto, Terre, pp. 179-249.
- H. Brese, '1282: classes sociales et revolution nationale', XI Congresso
di Storia della Corona d'Aragona: La Societd mediterranea all'epoca del Vespro.
VII Centenario del Vespro Siciliano, 4 vols (Palermo, 1983-84), vol. 2,
pp. 241-58; repr. in H. Brese, Politique et societe en Sicile, XJie-X.Ve siecles
(Aldershot, 1990); W. Percy, 'The earliest revolution against the
"Modern State": direct taxation in medieval Sicily and the Vespers',
Italian Quarterly, 22 (1981), pp. 69-83.