The Angevin invasion of Sicily (1298–1302) was a military campaign launched against the Kingdom of Sicily by an alliance of the Angevin Kingdom of Naples, the Crown of Aragon, and the papacy during the War of the Sicilian Vespers. Fought in the final years of the 20-year long war, the campaign saw the alliance make some territorial gains on the island before ultimately withdrawing in the face of Sicilian resistance.
Marked by sieges, guerilla warfare, and engagements at sea, the invasion saw the Angevin–Aragonese–Papal allies engage in operations to seize control over major cities in Sicily, with varying degrees of success. However, controlling the Sicilian interior proved to be difficult, and allied control was only consistently established in northeast and southeast Sicily. The failure of the final allied offensive in 1302 directly led to the signing of the Peace of Caltabellotta, the treaty that concluded the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
Background
Starting with the Sicilian Vespers in early 1282, in 1297 the ensuing War of the Sicilian Vespers continued to drag on, with neither side able to find an acceptable peace. Angevin Naples and the papacy remained adamant that Sicily needed to be occupied and returned to the rule of the Angevin House of Anjou, while the Sicilians (led by the newly crowned Frederick III of Sicily) continued to fiercely defend the island's status as an independent kingdom. The Angevins had made small forays onto Sicily during the course of the conflict, most notably when an Angevin fleet had captured Augusta in 1287, but these invasion attempts had all been on a small scale.
To end the stalemate, Pope Boniface VIII conducted an extensive diplomatic offensive to win the Kingdom of Aragon, Sicily's ally from the start of the war, to the Angevin's side, hoping a newly formed Angevin–Aragonese–Papal alliance would be able to force the Sicilians to submit. James II of Aragon, himself the former king of Sicily and brother of Frederick, supported a negotiated peace with the papacy, but was initially hesitant to sign any treaty that would draw Aragon into a war with Sicily. However, after a series of peace overtures to his brother failed, in March 1297 James travelled to Rome to confer with Boniface. In Rome, James negotiated a treaty in which he agreed to make war on his brother and Sicily in exchange for compensation, namely money and a papal sanction to annex Sardinia and Corsica.
With the new alliance secured, Aragon and Angevin Naples prepared to go on the offensive against Sicily in 1298. Aragon possessed a formidable navy led by the famous Aragonese–Sicilian admiral Roger of Lauria, who was himself a former subject of the Kingdom of Sicily, and Angevin Naples had a large, well-equipped army trained in the style of medieval France. In Sicily, Frederick prepared to fight off the allied invasion, quickly working to build up the Sicilian navy. While smaller than the Angevin army, the Sicilian army had years of experience and was a capable fighting force; in addition to native Sicilian soldiers, many Aragonese and Catalans who had served on the island during the earlier campaigns of the war remained loyal to Sicily and joined Frederick's forces.Stanton, Charles D. “SWITCHING SIDES (DECEMBER 1293–APRIL 1297).” In Roger of Lauria (c.1250-1305): “Admiral of Admirals,” NED-New edition., 236–55. Boydell & Brewer, 2019. .
1298 invasion of Sicily In the summer of 1298 a combined allied fleet of 50 Aragonese and 30 Angevin galleys was prepared to operate out of Naples. Opposing the allied fleet were 64 Sicilian galleys led by former Genoese admiral Corrado Doria.Stanton, Charles D. “ARAGON’S INVASION OF SICILY AT ANJOU’S BIDDING (1298/1299).” In Roger of Lauria (c.1250-1305): “Admiral of Admirals,” NED-New edition., 256–70. Boydell & Brewer, 2019. . Under James' command, the allies needed to secure a stretch of beach on which to disembark an army and a port from where they could resupply. Roger of Lauria commanded the allied fleet, with Prince Robert of Naples (son of King Charles II of Angevin Naples) also serving as an army commander. At Roger's advice, in the summer of 1298 the allied fleet sailed for the north coast of Sicily, where parts of the population had pro-Angevin tendencies; the army made a successful landing at the city of Patti on 1 September, capturing the city without a fight. The allied army moved eastward in the direction of the key city of Messina, soon forcing the towns of Milazzo, Novara, and Monforte San Giorgio to surrender and forming a corridor of allied control in northeast Sicily. However, rugged terrain and a hostile populace forced James to call off the advance on Messina and withdraw to Patti. The operation convinced the allies that a large, sheltered port city needed to be captured before the onset of winter.
In October the allied force sailed from Patti, leaving a substantial garrison behind to occupy the city. James planned to embark on a major campaign to capture Syracuse, a large port in eastern Sicily, and eventually use the port to maintain his fleet through the stormy Mediterranean winter months. The allied army and fleet besieged the city in late October, landing troops to the north and south of Syracuse. However, the heavy-fortified city refused to surrender and Lauria's fleet was unable to take the formidable Castello Maniace by sea. With Syracuse besieged, the allies conducted a limited push inland, capturing the towns of Sortino, Ferla, Palazzolo and Buscemi before an attempt to seize Buccheri was thwarted by armed townspeople. The allied advance quickly dried up and a protracted siege of Syracuse began.
Siege of Syracuse While the allies under James besieged Syracuse, Frederick and the Sicilian army took up positions in Catania, some 30 miles north of the besieged city, and began to wage a successful guerilla campaign against the allied army. Frederick dispatched Blasco I d'Alagona, a capable Catalan general in Sicilian service, to strike the allied army. D'Alagona conducted a series of successful cavalry raids against the allies, limiting their ability to move further into the Sicilian interior by harassing their supply lines. Frustrated with the state of the siege and the ongoing Sicilian resistance, the allies looked for ways to gain control over the towns and castles in the East-Central Sicily, hoping to cut the island in two. During the winter of 1298 a Sicilian noble named Giovanni di Barresi attempted to defect to the allied cause, promising to turn over control of his lands in Capo d’Orlando and Pietraperzia—a blow that would effectively allow James to combine his forces in northern and southern Sicily. The Aragonese king dispatched allied soldiers to meet with Barresi and take control over his holdings, but the Sicilians moved faster; Frederick learned of the plot, and d'Alagona's forces ambushed the allied force at night near Giarratana, routing it.
As the winter progressed, both sides suffered heavily from attrition. Disease and lack of supply cut the fighting effectivity of the Angevin–Aragonese allies besieging Syracuse, which continued to put up a stubborn resistance. The allied position in Sicily became more tenuous when a civil uprising broke out in the occupied city of Patti in the north, forcing the allied garrison to retreat to the city's citadel. Not willing to risk losing the city, Roger of Lauria organized two relief forces to aid the besieged garrison; the admiral led a force of 300 horsemen towards the city, while he tasked his cousin Giovanni di Lauria with leading 20 allied ships to Patti. This plan worked, and the combined force convinced the Sicilians to lift the siege of Patti and retreat, but the relief effort also forced the allied fleet to traverse the hazardous coast of Sicily in the turbulent winter weather. On its return trip south Giovanni's fleet was ambushed in the strait of Messina by a larger Sicilian fleet, resulting in the capture of Giovanni and 16 ships—a major loss to the allied navy that also left the Sicilian and allied navies at near-parity in terms of number of ships.
In March 1299, James decided to lift the allied siege of Syracuse. Withdrawing his army and navy, he sailed north for Naples, leaving garrisons behind to hold conquered towns. The Aragonese king extended a tentative peace offer to his brother, suggesting that he would withdraw his forces from the theatre in exchange for the 16 ships and prisoners the Sicilians had taken at Messina. The offer caused some debate in the Sicilian court; some councilors encouraged Frederick to accept the offer, while others wanted revenge on the allies and urged Frederick to continue the war. Frederick ultimately chose to attack his brother's battered force as it withdrew, but a storm covered the allied retreat and prevented a major fleet action. With peace aborted, James returned to Naples and then onto Barcelona, where he replenished his army and navy.
1299–1301 invasion of Sicily
Second landing and Battle of Cape Orlando
James and his rebuilt army arrived back in Naples in May 1299, and by late June a second allied invasion fleet was ready to depart for Sicily. Frederick and the Sicilians took advantage of the spring to assail and re-capture the majority of the towns occupied by the allies the previous year. In July the Aragonese-Angevin fleet sailed for northern Sicily; although the allied corridor in the north had collapsed the previous year, the allies hoped that enough allied loyalists had escaped into the north of the country and would aid their return. Under Roger of Lauria's command, the allied fleet rounded the Cape of Orlando and landed at the town of San Marco d'Alunzio, which commanded the mouth of the Zappulla River. The allied fleet took up defensive positions on the beach, facing their bows outward towards the sea. Frederick and the Sicilian fleet arrived soon after, intending to intercept the invasion but instead finding the allied fleet already beached and offloading men. Though the Sicilian fleet was outnumbered by the allied fleet, Frederick chose to attack, hoping to smash the allied invasion while he had his forces concentrated. In the ensuing Battle of Cape Orlando on 4 July, the Sicilian fleet suffered a major defeat, losing 18 galleys and granting the allies command of the sea.Anderson, Erich B. “The Sicilian Disaster at Cape Orlando.” Medieval Warfare 6, no. 2 (2016): 58–58. . Frederick was able to escape the battle, but several high-ranking Sicilian nobles were taken prisoner and Sicilian naval power was crippled. James - having been informed of growing unrest in Catalonia - returned to Aragon soon after the victory, leaving Lauria and the Angevins to continue the war in Sicily. Some sources have alleged that James, tired of expending Aragonese resources fighting a fellow member of the House of Barcelona and his former subjects, intentionally shifted his attention back to Iberia and away from Sicily, and James would never return to the theatre. With James' withdraw from the theatre, the weight of forces in the conflict shifted to Angevin Naples and Aragonese forces took a limited role in the campaign.