“Los mals fets e les injúries”: Taxation as a Cause of the Sicilian Vespers in Chronistic Narratives

Abstract

This study examines the representation of King Charles of Anjou's taxation policies in the chronicles recounting the events of the Sicilian Vespers. These narratives portrayed his fiscal policies in the Kingdom of Sicily as excessively burdensome and employed them as a key element to legitimise the rebellion. The research is grounded in a comparative analysis of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century chronicle texts, both anti-Angevin and Guelph, complemented by a historiographical review that situates Angevin administration within its political and economic context. This methodological approach sheds light on the narrative strategies employed by the chroniclers, who leveraged the tensions provoked by the king’s fiscal policies to justify the insurrection while presenting their proposed resolutions to the conflict. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the chronicles in shaping an adversarial narrative against the monarch, consolidating a historical memory that linked his fiscal policies to oppression and played a pivotal role in the discursive construction of the Sicilian Vespers conflict.