Beginning of the Sicilian Vespers

Date: March 30, 1282 • Location: Ciaculli, Italy

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1282–1302.

Sicilians began to rebel against the rule of the Angevin King Charles I of Naples, starting the War of the Sicilian Vespers.

The Sicilian Vespers was a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou. Since taking control of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1266, the Angevin government had made itself unpopular with its exploitative policies and exclusion of native Sicilians from power.