The Sicilian Vespers Author:Steven Runciman On 30 March 1282, as the bells of Palermo were ringing for Vespers, the Sicilian townsfolk, crying "death to the French", slaughtered the garrison and supporters of their Angevin King. — Charles, King of Sicily, Count of Provence, Anjou, and Maine, domineering uncle of the King of France, and protege of the Pope, was on the point of sailing from ... more »Sicily to sack Constantinople, to subject the Easter Empire to himself and its Church to that of Rome.
Had he succeeded he would have become the greatest ruler in Europe since the Roman Empire.« less