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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2011
There is no stronger proof of the stability of the Empire which Charles V and Philip II had built, and of the vitality of the monarchic idea in the seventeenth century, than the ability of the Spanish Monarchy to survive the crisis of the years 1647 and 1648. In a dispatch to his Senate the Venetian ambassador in Madrid characterized Spain's history in those years as a string of disasters: Portugal and Catalonia in open revolt; Andalusia in the grip of corruption owing to the treachery of the Duke of Medina Sidonia; the East Indies with Brazil (a country large enough for four kingdoms) lost with Portugal; the West Indies hard-pressed by the Dutch; the royal revenues mortgaged, credit extinct; friends become enemies or vacillating neutrals, and the Government abandoned to the inexperience of a new favourite. Thus the Spanish Monarchy resembled that great colossus which for many years had been the wonder of the world and which during an earthquake had collapsed in a few moments while every one hurried along to enrich himself with the fragments.
This account is based primarily on the following contemporary Sicilian and Spanish diaries and chronicles which, to a varying degree, are all hostile to the popular movement.
V. Auria, ‘Diario delle cose occorse nella citta di Palermo e nel Regno di Sicilia’, in G. di Marzo, Bibl[ioteca] Stor[ica] e Lett[eraria di Sicilia], vol. in (Palermo, 1869).
D. Aragona (?), ‘Continuacion de los tumultos de Palermo’, etc., ed. L. Boglino, in Archivio storico siciliano, N.S. vol. VII, p. 358.
D. Aragona, ‘Epitome delle seconde rivoluzione di Palermo’, transl. di Marzo, in Bibl. Star, e Lett. vol. IV.
A. Collurafi, Tumultuationi delta plebe in Palermo (Palermo, 1651).
Rocco Pirri, ‘Annales Panormi sub annis D. Ferdinandi de Andrada’, etc., in Bibl. Stor. e Lett. vol. IV.
Placido Reina (Andrea Pocili), Delle rivolutioni delta cittd di Palermo awenute l' anno 1647 (Verona, 1648).
M. Serio, ‘Veridica Relazione di tumulti accorsi nell’ anno… 1647 e 1648 nella città di Palermo’, in Bibl. Stor. e Lett. vol. IV.
‘Breve Relazione [del come si scopra la congiura macchinata da alcuni per sollevare Palermo…]’, transl. di Marzo, in Bibl. Stor. e Lett. vol. IV.
There is an excellent and detailed nineteenth-century account, mainly of Alesi, in I. La Lumia, Storie Siciliane (Palermo, 1883), vol. IV; and a full and very competent article by A. Siciliano in Archivio Storico per la Sicilia, vols. IV and V (Palermo, 1938-39), based on much unpublished material. There is, however, no attempt to place the revolt in its historical setting.
There are shorter accounts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries general histories of Sicily, notably in G. B. di Blasi, Storia Cronologica de’ Vicere, vol. III (Palermo, 1791).
2 Basadonna, Pietro in Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti, ed. Barozzi, & Berchet, , 1st ser., vol. 11 (Venice, 1860), p. 197Google Scholar.
3 Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, ed. Chéruel, A., vol. II (Paris, 1879), p. 473Google Scholar.
4 [Merriman, R. B.], [Six Contemporaneous Revolutions (Oxford, 1938)]Google Scholar.
6 It is not discussed by Merriman.
7 Ranke, Cf., ‘Die Osmanen und die Spanische Monarchic’, in Samtl. Werke, vols. XXXV-VI (Leipzig, 1877), pp. 209 ffGoogle Scholar.
7 E.g. in 1637 Antonio Colonna was invested with the ‘Barony of Biscuits’ which meant the rights of the gabelle on biscuits. Orlando, D., Il Feudalismo in Sicilia (Palermo, 1847), p. 73Google Scholar.
8 Siciliano, , Archivio Storico…, pp. 192–3Google Scholar.
9 Lumia, La, Storie Siciliane, p. 12Google Scholar, with discussion of authorities for this figure.
10 Ibid. pp. 20 ff.
11 Auria, , Bibl. Star, e Lett.…, pp. 40 ffGoogle Scholar.
12 A salma is about 275 litres.
13 Collurafi, , Tumultuationi…, p. 8Google Scholar.
14 Giardina, C., ‘Letter of de los Velez to Philip IV on the 23 May 1647’, in Atti della Reale Accademia di Sdenze, Lettere e Belle Arti di Palermo, 3rd ser., vol. XVI (1931), p. 262Google Scholar.
15 Blasi, di, Storia Crorwlogica…, pp. 204 ffGoogle Scholar.
16 ‘Letter of de los Velez’, Atti…, p. 262.
17 M. Serio, p. 24: ‘…non viddi in questi capo di plebe nessun titolato, né cavaleri, né gentilomo, né mastro, né religioso, che fomintasse ditta plebe, ma solo puoca gente di bassa condizione e molte femine di cortiglia…’.
18 Cf. Argisto Giuffredi, ‘Awertimenti Cristiani’, in Document! þer…la Storia di Sicilia, 4th sen, vol. IV (1896), pp. 53 ff.
19 Reina, p. 15.
20 Rocco Pirri, p. 72:‘…venisse iam tempus quo populares viri cum nobilibus divitibusque conditionem, ut naturae ordo poscebat, aequarent.’
21 Printed by La Lumia, together with other documents of the revolt, in Storie Siciliane, p. 201.
22 Siciliano, , Archivio Storico.…, pp. 203 ffGoogle Scholar.
23 This is clear from a letter of recommendation by Trivulzio dated 18 February 1648, from R. Arch, di Stato, quoted by Siciliano, , Archivio Storico…, p. 211Google Scholar.
21 Letter of Velez to Philip IV on 23 May 1647 in Archivio Storico…, p. 261.
26 Velez, letter to the Duke of Montalto, Viceroy of Sardinia, of 1 June 1647 in Archivio Storico…, p. 266.
26 Cf. Auria and Reina; also Blasi, di, Storia Cronologica…, pp. 212 ff.Google Scholar, Siciliano, , Archivio Storico…, p. 215Google Scholar, and Bianchini, L., Storia economica-civile delta Sicilia, vol. I, pp. 281 ffGoogle Scholar.
27 Lionti, F., ‘Cartelli Sedioziosi del 1647’, in Archivio Stor. Sicil. N.S., A. 19 (Palermo, 1894-1895)Google Scholar.
28 Siciliano, , Archivio Storico…, p. 231Google Scholar, seems to think that it was not the bishop but the speculators trying to sell corn elsewhere who caused the rise in prices.
28 Idoplare Copa (i.e. Placido Reina), ‘Raccolta d’ alcune lettere del Re…al Senato di Messina’, in L' Idra Dicapitata… (Vicenza, 1662), pp. 255 ffGoogle Scholar.
30 Lionti, , Archivio Storico…, p. 443Google Scholar.
31 Auria, , Bibl. Star, e Lett.…, p. 87Google Scholar.
32 Letter of Velez, 1 June 1647, Archivio Storico…, p. 266.
33 Lumia, La, Storie Siciliane, pp. 79 ffGoogle Scholar.
34 Cf. Collurafi, , Tumultuationi…, p. 75Google Scholar.
36 Serio, , Bibl. Star, e Lett… p. 36Google Scholar.
36 Pirri, Rocco, Bibl. Stor. e Lett…, p. 112Google Scholar.
37 Printed in La Lumia's documents; also in Reina.
38 Siciliano, , Archivio Storico…, pp. 262 ffGoogle Scholar.
39 Auria, , Bibl. Stor. e Lett… p. 129Google Scholar.
40 Serio, , Bibl. Stor. e Lett…, p. 37Google Scholar.
41 From a ‘Volume di Provisioni dell'anno 1646—47, nell'Archivio del Commune di Palermo’, quoted by La Lumia, Storie Siciliane, p. 131.
42 Breve Relazioni, p. 406.
43 Blasi, di, Storia Cronologica…, p. 234Google Scholar.
44 Amari, M., History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers; transl. Ellesmere, Earl of (London, 1850), vol. 1, pp. 188, 271 ffGoogle Scholar.
45 Letter of 8 September 1647 in Copa, L' Idra Dicapitata.…, pp. 271 ff.
46 Reina, , Delle rivolutioni.…, pp. 245 ffGoogle Scholar.
47 The Messinian Jesuit Samperi, writing under the pseudonym of Sestini, M. A., pointed out these implications shortly afterwards in his dialogues, La Felicita Caduta… (Perugia, 1648)Google Scholar.
48 Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, vol. 11, p. 465.
49 Cf. Merriman, Six Content. Revs.
50 Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, vol. II, pp. 561 ff.
51 Ibid. p. 476.
52 Ibid. p. 471.
53 Auria, , Bibl. Stor. e Lett.…, p. 179Google Scholar.
54 Ibid. pp. 228 ff.
55 Siciliano accepts Auria's version of this, but there seems to be no more reason for accepting it than the stories of the armies of demons which Sirletti was supposed to have called—stories which Auria and Collurafi accept just as uncritically.
56 Collurafi, ‘Tradimento del Platanella’, in Tumultuationi….
67 Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin, vol. II, p. 56:. Letter of 20 December 1647, to the French Resident in Sweden.
68 Auria, , Bibl. Star, e Lett… p. 274Google Scholar.
59 Another decree for disarmament was necessary in August as it was found that people had several sets of arms from Alesi's storming of the armouries.
60 Lumia, La, Storie Siciliane, pp. 187 ffGoogle Scholar.
61 Blasi, di, Storia Cronologica…, pp. 281ffGoogle Scholar.
62 Amari, , Bibl. Star, e Lett…, vol. IGoogle Scholar.
63 ‘De tous ceux que l'Histoire nous apprend avoir été à la téte des tumultes populaires, il en est peu d'aussi modéres que lui.’ Burigny, J. E. de, Histoire GSnerale de Sidle (La Haye, 1745). vol. II, p. 392Google Scholar.
