Poteri e riforme nella Sicilia di Carlo di Borbone

Abstract

The arrival of Charles of Bourbon in Sicily caused great hopes within the “Spanish party” but, at the same time, the fear that the new dynastic unity with Naples would result in the loss of political and military independence of the island. The Giunta per gli Affari di Sicilia (Council for the Affairs of Sicily) should have been a guarantor institution in the Neapolitan perspective, but in reality the Parliament and especially the Deputazione del Regno (Deputation of the kingdom) were the advocates of the Kingdom’s interests. In Sicily the launch of the reforms process was cautious and concentrated on ecclesiastical jurisdiction, without compromising the relationship with the nobles, whose support the new government needed. The establishment of the Supremo Magistrato di Commercio (High Mercantile Court), however, quickly soured the climate of reform. The scope of the reform and its political content provoked the immediate reaction of togati (public officers, judges, lawyers) and nobles who had always been tied to common interests. In a few years they were defined the characters of a ius siculum characterized by peculiarities that made it different from the law in force in the Kingdom of Naples, and were placed the ideological foundations of the Sicilian Nation, a clear warning to the reform agenda of the Neapolitan government.