War of the Sicilian Vespers: Difference between revisions

The island of [[Sicily]] had been ruled as a medieval kingdom since the early 12th century, when [[Normans|Norman]] lord [[Roger II of Sicily]] conquered the island and established the [[Kingdom of Sicily]]. Strategically located in the Mediterranean, the kingdom grew to include much of southern Italy, and was considered one of the wealthiest kingdoms in Europe.<ref>N[[John Julius Norwich|orwich, John Julius]] (1992). ''The Normans in Sicily: The Normans in the South 1016–1130 and the Kingdom in the Sun 1130–1194''. Penguin Global. {{ISBN|978-0-14-015212-8}}</ref><ref name=":18">Davis-Secord, Sarah. “Sicily at the Center of the Mediterranean.” In ''Where Three Worlds Met: Sicily in the Early Medieval Mediterranean'', 1st ed., 213–41. Cornell University Press, 2017. {{jstor|10.7591/j.ctt1qv5qfp.13}}.</ref> Grain produced in the kingdom's lands in Sicily and southern Italy fed the northern [[Italian city-states|Italian city states]] and the [[Holy Land]], while the island itself served as a staging ground for several crusades.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Schneidman |first=J.Lee |date=December 1969 |title=Ending the War of the Sicilian Vespers |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600404 |journal=Journal of Peace Research |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=335–347 |doi=10.1177/002234336900600404 |issn=0022-3433 |s2cid=110273792}}</ref><ref name=":18" /> Sicily was key to the defense of Rome and the papal states, and as such the papacy considered it vital that a friendly king occupied the throne of Sicily. Diplomatic relations between the papacy and Sicily{{Note|Note}} were heavily intertwined; the papacy funded the Norman invasion of Sicily, had sanctioned the establishment of the kingdom, and the king of Sicily officially ruled as a vassal in the name of the pope.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":20">Migliazzo, F. (2024). Holy War and Crusade in Southern Italy: Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries. In: Carr, M., Chrissis, N.G., Raccagni, G. (eds) Crusading Against Christians in the Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. </ref>