at his death Charles secured the
election of his henchman Martin IV. (1281), who recommenced persecuting
the Ghibellines, excommunicated the Greek emperor, Michael Palaeologus,
proclaimed a crusade against the Greeks, filled every appointment in the
papal states with Charles's vassals, and reappointed the Angevin king
senator of Rome. But the cruelty of the French rulers of Sicily drove
the people of the island to despair, and a Neapolitan nobleman, Giovanni
da Procida, organized the rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers (see
VESPERS, SICILIAN), in which the French in Sicily were all massacred or
expelled (1282). Charles determined to subjugate the island and sailed
with his fleet for Messina. The city held out until Peter III. of
Aragon, whose wife Constance was a daughter of Manfred, arrived in
Sicily, and a Sicilian-Catalan fleet under the Calabrese admiral,
Ruggiero di Lauria, completely destroyed that of Charles. "If thou art
determined, O God, to destroy me," the unhappy Angevin exclaimed, "let
my fall be gradual!" He was forced to abandon all attempts at
reconquest, but proposed to decide the question by single combat between
himself and Peter, to take place at Bordeaux under English protection.
The Aragonese accepted, but fearing treachery, as the French army was in
the neighbourhood, he failed to appear on the appointed day. In the
meanwhile Ruggiero di Lauria appeared before Naples and destroyed
another Angevin fleet commanded by Charles's son, who was taken prisoner
(May 1284). Charles came to Naples with a new fleet from Provence, and
was preparing to invade Sicily again, when he contracted a fever and
died at Foggia on the 7th of January 1285. He was undoubtedly an
extremely able soldier and a skilful statesman, and much of his
legislation shows a real political sense; but his inordinate ambition,
his oppressive methods of government and taxation, and his cruelty
created enemies on all sides, and led to the collapse of the edifice of
dominion which he had raised.

CHARLES II. (1250-1309), king of Naples and Sicily, son of Charles I.,
had been captured by Ruggiero di Lauria in the naval battle at Naples in
1284, and when his father died he was still a prisoner in the hands of
Peter of Aragon. In 1288 King Edward I. of England had mediated to make
peace, and Charles was liberated on the understanding that he was to
retain Naples alone, Sicily being left to the Aragonese; Charles was
also to induce hi