City-republics of Northern Italy and the Sicilian Vespers: The Perception of the Revolt in the Urban Chronicles

Abstract

ABSTRACT The revolt of the Vespers was immediately perceived around the Mediterranean and Europe as a turning point that threatened one of the greatest potentates in Europe: the Angevin Kingdom of Sicily. In central-northern Italy, these events jeopardised the Guelph hegemony supported by the Angevins and so the Italian city-republics experienced the consequences of the revolt, but its political and cultural impact on the city-republics has yet to be examined. This article will focus the analysis on the urban chronicles written in Italy outside the Kingdom of Sicily, to investigate how the revolt and war of the Vespers were perceived in central-northern Italy. It will also explore how the chroniclers’ prior political beliefs conditioned their interpretation of these events and will attempt to retrace when the conspiracy theory of John of Procida originated within the Guelph chronicles.