In June 1647, before the so-called Masaniello revolt broke out, an unnamedauthor wrote that a placard (cartello) had surfaced,issuing threats against the city’s nobles and the“mayors” (sindaci). According to the author,should new gabelle (taxes) be brought in, these persons would be“dragged” across the entire city. On the other hand, he ratherdoubted that such an uprising would occur, “if there is nobody totake charge and stir it up, there is no need to fear the outcome, becausethe People are too abased.” He was unaware that a young man of theLavinaio quarter had already opted to risk his life for the cause. On July 71647, Tommaso Aniello d’Amalfi led hundreds of youths to theviceregal palace to compel the viceroy to abolish thegabella on fruit, and all other state charges oncomestibles. For several days, especially after an attack that aimed to killhim, Masaniello became a sort of viceroy or king of the peninsula’smost populous city, one of Europe’s biggest. The chroniclerAlessandro Giraffi explains the many means by which Masaniello pushed thepeople towards revolt:

It was thus thanks to Masaniello that on the second day of the uprising, thepeople could count on some 150,000 men in arms. Masaniello was killed on 16July, but officially the revolt lasted until 6 April 1648, when the new\viceroy made his entrance into the city. News of the uprising soonspread beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Naples: the revolt was yet onemore ulcer on the great, afflicted body of the Spanish monarchy in the lastspasms of its exhausting war against the United Provinces(1568–1648), after the Catalan revolt of May 1640, the Portuguesesecession (1640–1641), and the Sicilian revolts (1646–1647).The Kingdom of Naples was the most important source of financialcontributions for the Spanish monarchy among its Italian domains: since 1619(the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War), Spain’s demand formoney had grown; confronted with revolts in Catalonia and Portugal, and thewar with France, Philip IV was constrained to ask for new contributions.