Procida (John of Procida), Giovanni di
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Procida (John of Procida), Giovanni di: (b. Salerno. d. 1295.) Nobleman. “Lord of Procida.” Having been an important counselor to both Frederick II and Manfred, he was distrusted by the succeeding king Charles I of Anjou. Charles accused Giovanni of treason, stripping him of his properties but allowing him to remain free. Giovanni’s animosity towards the new French regime in Naples remained latent until his wife was assaulted by one of the king’s companions. This crime prompted Giovanni to leave Naples and seek sanctuary at the court of Queen Constance of Aragon, the daughter of the late Manfred. There he was well-received for his loyalty and was made a baron by Constance’s husband King Peter III. Giovanni’s contacts in Apulia and Sicily proved useful in stirring up hostility towards the Angevins and gathering useful intelligence. Giovanni secretly visited Sicily disguised as a Franciscan, visiting several local leaders and making plans for a revolt. He then moved on eastward to Constantinople where he met with the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. Michael, fearing an impending invasion of his empire from Charles I of Anjou, willingly agreed to finance a revolt. Giovanni then traveled to Rome where he won the support of Pope Nicholas III against Charles. Giovanni, having now succeeded in effectively surrounding Charles with enemies, returned to Aragon. There he convinced Peter to act on his claim to the Sicilian throne which he held through his marriage to Constance. Before the plans could be put into action, however, there was a serious setback when Pope Nicholas III died. His successor, Martin IV, was a Frenchman like Charles and could not be trusted to join the conspiracy. The plans had to be altered which required Giovanni to return in his Franciscan disguise to Sicily. Finally, everything fell into place and, on March 30, 1282, Giovanni went to Palermo. On the same day, the famous Sicilian Vespers broke out. There is some debate as to whether the uprising was spontaneous with Giovanni and the other conspirators simply taking advantage of it, or whether the outbreak had been preplanned. There is much circumstantial evidence to suggest that the uprising was the work of Giovanni and his cohorts. Giovanni’s presence in Palermo at the time of the outbreak is probably more than a coincidence. The violence only began when the Vespers bells in the city’s churches began to sound as though they were chosen as a prearranged signal. There is also the fact that the revolt was able to spread so quickly throughout the other cities of Sicily, another indication that the Vespers revolt was the result of preplanning.
After the successful conquest of Sicily by Peter of Aragon, Giovanni served him as loyally as he had the earlier Swabian kings. In 1289, he served as an ambassador to James, Peter’s successor, on an unsuccessful embassy to the pope. Later, in 1295, he accompanied the Dowager Queen Constance in a new attempt to win recognition from Pope Boniface VIII for the new Aragonese dynasty in Sicily. It was during this trip that Giovanni died in Rome.