Sicilian Revolt of 1204

The **Sicilian Revolt of 1204**, also alternatively known as the **Neudeterian Rising**, **Neudeterian Revolt** or **Sicilian War**, was a war that took place in multiple phases from 1204 to 1217 mainly between the Neudeterian dynasty and the Kingdom of Campagnia over ownership of the island of Sicily, which had come under Campagnian rule in 1143 following the death of the last Allaric king of Sicily. The war resulted in the defeat of the Neudeterian revolt, but did lead to [Something].

## Background

In 1076, following a decade long conflict between the Sicilian branch of the Karasteii Order and the Nafaritim Talgaw dynasty of North Afriqa in Sicily, the Allaric dynasty ruling in nearby Sardinia invaded the island and drove out both factions, establishing the Allaric Kingdom of Sicily, which they would continue to rule for the next seven decades.

During the rule of the Allaric dynasty in Sicily, especially king Arios II, local merchant families began to gain increasing influence over the affairs of the island, establishing private ports and trade centers to profit from the great trade of the Roman Sea. The king meanwhile gained almost none of this money through trade and following the Cisteros War in 1126, which the king lost, he was forced to agree to only take 10% of taxable income from the profits made by the merchants. This put a drain on the king's coffers and by the 1130's he was in debt to multiple other monarchs in Europa, including king Hanri III of Campagnia, who would launch multiple raids on Sicily and the Allaric capital of Sirgiatea.

In 1143 king Carlis, who had usurped the throne from the weak Mauritus in 1140, who suddenly pass away while surpressing a peasent revolt in eastern Sicily. Learning of this news, Hanri III of Campagnia quickly assembled a force of five thousand men and invaded Sicily, taking it without much resistance and established his rule there, plundering the royal treasury to repay the full debts of the Allaric dynasty to him.

During the rule of Hanri III and his successor Carlos II of Campagnia, Sicily would repeatedly be plundered by Campagnian forces as a continued source of funding for Campagnian military expeditions in Italia and elsewhere in Europa, including during the Aveasto War of 1172. This also came with restrictions upon the previously independent merchants of Sicily, who were now expected to pay 40% or more of their income in taxes, which highly upset many of the wealthiest merchant families.

The plundering of Sicily slowly came to an end under the few following kings who came after Carlos II, though the restrictions on the merchants remained in place and in 1198 king Hanri IV increased the required tax payments to 50% or above, as well as setting a minimum of 500 Cistero to be paid by each registered merchant. These news restrictions, continued under his successors, lead to many smaller merchants being forced to resign from their jobs, allowing the larger merchant families to gain a stronger foothold over trade with Sicily, though at the same time this meant their tax payments were only increasing in size. This left both the poor and wealthy merchant families and guilds dismayed at the nobility, causing them to organise regular protests against the, which were crushed by violent force.

All of this finally came to a head in 1202, when the Neudeterians and multiple other merchant families, fearing their near bankruptcy, got together and financed the hire of around two and a half thousand Spaniard and Italian mercenaries. These mercenaries arrived to Sicily in secret in late 1203 to the cities of Sirgiatea and Marsale, where they hid out the winter in secret. With the winter nearing it's end, the Neudeterians and now nearly the entire merchant establishment of Sicily revolted against the rule of the Campagnians, using the hired mercenaries and local peasents drafted into the army to swiftly take over key forts and towns across western and eastern Sicily, beginning the Sicilian Revolt of 1204.

## Events

### Phase 1 (1204)

The Sicilian revolt began in Marsale sometime in February 1204, lead by the Neudeterians with the assistance of 2.5k mercenaries hired by them two years prior. The mercenaries quickly took control of Marsale and the surrounding area as many cities surrendered to and joined them peacefully due to the same disgruntlement by local merchant families towards the Campagnians as those the Neudeterians felt. By the end of March, the rebels had already taken over much of western Sicily, even including port cities such as Alcamro and Suzzeio, which were seen as Campagnian strongholds in Sicily.

Merchant revolts had also sprung up in eastern cities such as Syracuse or Augustia, where the local merchants had financed their own peasant and mercenary armies to fight for them, as well ass incited riots in major cities such as Luogio Ventosa and Sirgiatea. King Hanri IV, suffering from disease, sent noble Aruzziano del Casaro with six three thousand troops to take care of the revolt. Arruziano, upon his landing in Messina, was immediately attacked by mobs of angry villagers and merchants, which forced him to spend over a month clearing out northern cities of rioters. This allowed the Sicilian rebels to gain further headway, surrounding Sirgiatea and forcing the local governor to flee, while in the west cities such as Sciasca and Castelvatio fell to the rebels.

Meanwhile in southeastern Sicily, the Cape of Merchants, named so due to the high amount of port cities and the merchant families in them, also experienced multiple revolts. The two largest of these were in Agilalto and Domeira, lead by the Nastrati and Comrostre families respectively. These revolts employed a far wider range of troops, from Afriqan and Europaen mercenaries to local peasants and thieves all the way to Christian holy orders paid to join the rebellions. These revolts soon resulted in nearly the entire Cape of Merchants falling into rebel hands by late April without much resistence, only leaving the interior, center and north of Sicily under Campagnian control.

Having crushed the norther riots, Arruziano finally made his way southwards, recapturing the city of Gjiarre and defeating multiple smaller rebel armies under the command of local merchant leaders. Arruziano then made his way to Sirgiatea, which he hoped to liberate from rebel encirclement to replenish it's supplies and allow for the return of the governor to the city. Arruziano's army arrived to the outskirts of the city on May 15th and met around two thousand Germanian and Afriqan mercenaries commanded by the Cotroza merchant family.

The two armies engaged in battle on the following day near the village of Piccola Sirgiatea. The battle at first looked to be a Campagnian victory, as Arruziano's troops dealt multiple decisive blows to the Cotroza force and managed to make a connection with the walls of Sirgiatea. But suddenly a secret dispatchment of Germanian knights hiding in the nearby hillside made a surprise attack on Arruziano's rear, causing his forces to begin to rout. In the confusion Arruziano himself was injured and over a thousand of his troops were slain, while another thousand were taken captive, leaving Arruziano to escape with only around a thousand troops remaining.

Following the Campagnian defeat at the Battle of Piccola Sirgiatea, nearly the entirety of Sicily's remaining merchant ports broke into revolt, taking control of nearly the entire island by early July. Meanwhile Arruziano, following two more losses at the Battles of Taormina and Campo d'acqua, was recalled from Sicily by Hanri IV and would die on his way back, temporarily leaving the troops in Sicily with no military leader. On September 20th, 1204, following multiple months of consolidation by the rebels, Cristoforo De Neudetero, a prominent merchant and member of the Neudeterian or Neudetero merchant family, was proclaimed as king of a new Sicilian kingdom independent from Campagnia.

### Phase 2 (1204-1211)

With the forces of Arruziano defeated, the Sicilian merchant forces continued to surround the city of Sirgiatea until the second week of October 1204, when the starving city opened it's gates to surrender. From this point onwards the rebellion enters it's second phase, as ports and regular cities in central Sicily proclaimed their allegiance to the new king by the end of the year. The north meanwhile remained under Campagnian control, as the thousand remaining troops on the island secured the northern cities from merchant rebellions. This state of affairs remains generally in place until 1207.

## Historical Info

### Preceded by

Kingdom of Campagnia
Campagnian Sicily

### Succeeded by

Kingdom of Campagnia
Restored Campagnian Kingdom of Sicily

## Government

### Government

Merchant council-dominated monarchy (1204-1207)
Feudal monarchy (1207-1217)

### Capital

* Marsale
* Sirgiatea

## Authorship

### Made by

User:NotFinland

With their power secured, the merchants of Sicily began to draft a new set of laws, restoring many of the old rights taken from them by Hanri II and his successors, as well as granting themselves sole trade, tarrif and taxing rights on the island. All of these would be written down in the *Declaratio Relationum Publicarum* (transl. *Declaration of Public Relations*), signed into law by the king in March 1206. Not soon after the taxes on merchant business were completely abolished, only keeping the basic housing taxes, while larger taxes were placed on the peasantry and remaining nobility in hopes of pressuring them into joining the merchant guilds. This would further be expanded upon with multiple decrees in late 1206, which outlined the business relations between the peasants and merchants, giving huge favour to the merchants in any exchanges, debates, sales or auctions. These taxes caused many of the peasants to go into debt and be forced to sell of their houses, which the nobility quickly took hold of and plundered for any crops to hoard for themselves.

The situation got worse in early 1207, when the Campagnian forces stationed in the north were replenished by many of the same peasants who had been forced to leave their homes due to their high debts, increasing their numbers to roughly three thousand. This growth allowed them to begin sending raids into Sicilian territory, convincing single peasant farms or even whole villages to join them in their resistence to the merchant rule over the island. Fearing that their numbers would increase, the merchants got together and passed multiple new laws, demanding all peasants to move to the cities within the next few months along with all of their families and equipment. While some did follow this order, most chose to ignore it and stay at their homes, but even the small numbers that did arrive caused issues for the cities, who lacked anywhere to house these new inhabitants. This soon grew into a massive problem, as the major ports became filled with poor peasants, blocking much of the transit in the cities, increasing robberies by desperate peasants and leading to general mayhem, in turn convincing many of Europa's and Afriqa's traders to go elsewhere to conduct trade.

By summer of 1207 these problems had gotten too bad for the king to ignore. Cristoforo called all paid mercenaries on the island to Sirgiatea, where he made them swear a personal oath to him. On July 15th of 1207, Cristoforo published a document demanding all merchants on the island to surrender their property and swear an oath to him within the next month if they wanted to live. Even before the deadline had been met, Cristoforo already began using his newly gained mercenary army to stamp out the merchant presence in multiple of the major port cities, restoring the nobles to rule in them and allowing the peasants to return to their homes. By the end of summer, most merchants on the island had either sworn their oath to Cristoforo or left the island. The property of those who had left was seized by the king and used to pay off the increasingly lengthy contracts with the mercenaries to keep on the island. Over the following months Cristoforo slowly rescinded all the law created by the merchants and restored the old legal system to the island. With these events merchant rule in Sicily had come to an end, leading the way for the establishment of a true monarchy.

#### Campagnian Raids (1207-1211)

In late summer and autumn 1207 Campagnian forces began launching raids from the north. The first few targeted Gjiarre and nearby villages, though they were mostly beaten back by local forces and mercenary army of the newly centralised Sicily. In late September a Campagnian army tried to attack Cefalto, but faced multiple defeats against near the port by Afriqan mercenaries that forced them to retreat, though they did raid multiple villages on the way back to Campagnian territory. After the death. Campagnian troops moved to conducting raids inbetween Gjiarre and the nothern coast, ending them once November came.

The next Campagnian raids came in March 1208, though these were minor and only targeted small villages near Gjiarre. By this point the Campagnian forces had been without a leader since the recalling of Arruziano and had acted near independently, but in April knight Parro de Cunnes arrived with one thousand more troops to Sicily and took command of the army. In May Parro decided to attack Gjiarre, hoping to open a path to Sirgiatea. At first the Campagnian army made some gains against smaller Sicilian militias, but were soon defeated by a larger mercenary force, forcing them to turn back. Following this defeat, Parro decided to cease raiding for the time being and ordered the construction of defenses in Taormina. The defenses would be completed in late August, in time for a suprise Sicilian attack.