Second case of Sciacca


The second case of Sciacca, sometimes also referred to as the third, was the concluding part of the violent conflict fought between Sicily's noble families of de Luna and Perollo between 1455 and 1529, referred to as the "case of Sciacca." The main phases of the conflict were fought in the territories of the feudal town of Bivona and the demesne town of Sciacca, both current Italian municipalities in the province of Agrigento in Sicily, in the summer months of 1529.
In addition to Sigismondo II de Luna and Giacomo Perollo, the real protagonists of the conflict, the second Sciacca case involved several personalities, from the relatives of the two enemies to the privateer Sericono Bassà, from Pope Clement VII to Emperor Charles V.
The case finally ended, at the end of February 1530, with the death of Sigismondo de Luna, which occurred more than seven months after that of his enemy Giacomo Perollo.

Historical context

The 16th century in Sicily was characterized by the constant discord among the feudal lords of the island. Being inhabited by several lords, many state-owned cities were bloodied by the struggles caused by the lust for dominance of each lord who, taking advantage especially of the weakness of the government, wanted to impose himself in the cities, flaunting luxury and power.
Sciacca, a port city in southwestern Sicily, was the home of numerous powerful noble families of the time: predominant over all were the Perollo family and the Aragonese De Luna family, which also had possessions in other parts of Sicily.
In the early decades of the sixteenth century the Perollo family had become even more powerful through the good offices of Giacomo Perollo, lord of Pandolfina, who boasted a great friendship with Hector Pignatelli, viceroy of Sicily.
Having been Sciacca's deputy in the Sicilian Parliament several times, he enjoyed a large following, both among the people and numerous patrician families.
Other families, however, resenting the attitudes and riches of the Perollo, plotted against them and pitted the de Luna against him, especially Sigismondo de Luna, "the most powerful of the lords of the area," a son of Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna and husband of Luisa Salviati, daughter of Jacopo Salviati and Lucrezia de' Medici.

The ''casus belli''

The first clash between the two opposing factions occurred when about 30 of Count Luna's bravi, on their way from Bivona to Sciacca, were ambushed by a host of Perollo's armigers.
The bravi of the de Luna, despite being wounded, managed to reach Sciacca to reinforce the number of the Aragonese family's armigers; their large numbers caused the Perollo to request mediation between the two lords, Giacomo Perollo and Sigismondo de Luna, from the archpriest of Sciacca Don Gabriele Salvo.
Peace was promised, but such a pact was in vain, since, not long afterwards, an episode triggered a real war between the two: after an attempt by Sigismondo failed, Giacomo Perollo succeeded in freeing, without ransom, the baron of Solunto, kidnapped earlier by the Barbary pirate Sinam Bassà, as well as ten other Christians.
The checkmate suffered by Sigismondo further worsened the relationship between the two lords; increasing Sigismondo's resentment, moreover, were above all the constant demonstrations of force and contemptuous attitudes of Giacomo Perollo toward him.

Stages of the conflict

Early stages

The early stages of the conflict were characterized by constant murder and intimidation: Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna tried in vain to kill Giacomo Perollo; Girolamo Ferraro, a nobleman who had spoken words of peace before Sigismondo de Luna, was killed; some of Count de Luna's servants were clubbed; a bravo of Perollo's, Cola Stornello, was found dead a Bivonese man, whose name is known only wounded the archpriest of Sciacca Don Salvo because he was believed to be a partisan of Giacomo Perollo; Francesco Sanetta, captain of justice of Sciacca, broke into Sigismondo's house, along with some of the Perollo's braves, to search for armigers of the enemy.
A meeting held in Caltabellotta on June 18, 1529 decreed the turning point of the conflict: Sigismondo "decided to shorten the time for the decisive clash" and arranged for all his supporters to gather in Bivona to join him, later, precisely in Caltabellotta.

The first clash at Sciacca

On the night of June 19, 1529, one hundred armed men of the de Luna family, "ready to act at the most opportune moment," sneaked into Sciacca. A few days later a clash took place between the two opposing sides: two armigers of Perollo lost their lives on the occasion, which revealed the presence of a large number of followers of Sigismondo de Luna.
Therefore, Perollo had his friend Ettore Pignatelli, viceroy of Sicily, intervene directly: the latter sent Geronimo Statella, baron of Mongerbino, escorted by a company of infantrymen to Sciacca.
The commander Statella, in his capacity as captain of justice, had some time before captured in Bivona Bastiano Napoli, bravo of Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna, and despite the protests of the count had him hanged in the village, causing the protests and threats of the people who forced him to flee away from Bivona.
Statella arrived in Sciacca on July 14: he banished some members of the Amato, Fontanetta and Lucchesi families, friends of the de Luna, from the town; he condemned other men who were enemies of the Perollo to death; and finally, he ordered Sigismondo de Luna to move away from Sciacca and disband his troops.

Girolamo Statella in Bivona

On his return trip to Messina, Girolamo Statella passed through Bivona on July 16, 1529: there he had twenty of Count de Luna's braves hanged, including Giorgio Grasta. The hanging was followed by an insurrection of the people of Bivona, and once again Statella was forced to flee the mountain town and head back to Sciacca. The following is a description of the episode taken from the work Cenno storico-politico-etnografico di Bivona by Giovan Battista Sedita, dated 1909:

The massacre of Sciacca

Moving away from Sciacca, Sigismondo settled with his small army in the Verdura fief, near the mouth of the river of the same name, about ten miles east of the port city. Statella again ordered him to disband the troops, by Sunday, July 22, 1529: otherwise, Sigismondo would incur the crime of lese-majesty. Fearing an enemy attack, Giacomo Perollo sent his son Federico to Messina, to Viceroy Pignatelli; Federico Perollo left with sixty knights to ask for more reinforcements, but de Luna attacked sooner than expected.
On the evening of July 19, Sigismondo and his men stealthily entered Sciacca; at dawn, once Perollo's and Statella's houses were surrounded, de Luna ordered the attack. Girolamo Statella was killed by the Albanian Giorgio Comito, head of a squadron in Sigismondo's service: Comito, "chief of the Greeks", carried out a personal revenge:
Giacomo Perollo enclosed himself within the walls of his castle, together with his men: Sigismondo, therefore, ordered an assault on the castle. On July 20, the building was attacked four times, but all attempts were in vain. The bodies of the "most valiant" warriors and those of the nobles were taken to Bivona, as ordered by de Luna.
Perollo was also able to defend itself the following day, July 21, in which several assailants lost their lives, including the Bivonese Antonio Di Noto, "a very valiant young man and held in high esteem by De Luna," and the Trapanese Giovanni Lipari, "a man of incredible valor." The warriors were also taken to Bivona.
On July 22, 1529 Sigismondo de Luna ordered the demolition of the castle gates: on this occasion he had eight pieces of artillery used, forming part of the defensive system of the city of Sciacca:
Sigismondo de Luna would accept the peace proposal made by the enemy only if he "came before him, kneeling, to beg forgiveness and kiss his foot." Due to the harshness of Count Luna's proposal, Giacomo Perollo refused, and the assault was also renewed the following day.

Perollo's death

On July 23, 1529, Sigismondo de Luna's men managed to break down the tower and gate of San Pietro, entering Perollo's castle and killing everyone they came across.
Giacomo Perollo managed to escape and hide in a private house : betrayed by one of his followers, Antonello Palermo, Perollo was discovered and killed by Calogero Calandrino.
However, Sigismondo de Luna was not satisfied with his enemy's death:
News of the baron's killing, "preceded and followed by so many excesses, so much slaughter and carnage," reached Perollo's friends and Federico. The latter, who was together with a contingent of troops that the viceroy had entrusted to him, warned his friend Pignatelli of the "very serious events that had taken place," and, aggregating some armed men sent to him by the marquis of Geraci between Caltanissetta and Polizzi, on July 29, 1529, he set out for Sciacca, vowing to "kill De Luna and tear his heart out of his chest."

Battle of Blood Valley

Sigismondo de Luna, knowing the moves of his adversaries with the help of his own secret spies, "fearing that he could not cope with the royal army," retreated with all his men to Bivona, "his city, which would perhaps have known how to appreciate the many excesses, to which he had indulged."
Between Sciacca and Bivona, having reached the Verdura River, Onofrio Imbeagna, one of Perollo's killers, who had already been seriously wounded during the assault, died.
Count Luna arrived in Bivona on August 1 and had the defenses of the castle and town fortified: he had trenches made, forts, parapets and moats prepared.
On August 2, Federico Perollo and his army arrived in Sciacca, finding, however, no enemy. The baron waited, therefore, for the arrival of reinforcements sent from Messina by Viceroy Pignatelli; but the royal troop, captained by the two ministers of justice Nicolò Pollastra and Giovanni Riganti, having to pass through Bivona before reaching Sciacca, after passing Castronovo, ran into Count Luna's army:
Of the 100 horsemen sent ahead by the two ministers of justice, thirty were killed, others were mortally wounded, and others ran to warn the rest of the army, which was stationed in the Leone fiefdom, present-day territory near Filaga, a hamlet of Prizzi.
Learning of what had happened, Pollastra and Riganti decided to reach Sciacca "by another route": as soon as they arrived there, they formed an army of 1,000 infantrymen and 1,000 cavalrymen and set out for Bivona.
Informed of his opponents' intentions, Sigismondo de Luna, aware of the enemy's strength, resolved to flee.

The siege of Bivona

Arriving in Bivona on August 13, 1529, the royal troops were divided into three squadrons: it was Gian Paolo Perollo, Giacomo's nephew and the leader of a force of 600 horsemen, "the first to advance with the retinue of his men into the same land, where he immediately had all those shelters that the count had installed dismantled."
Entering de Luna's residence inside the castle and noticing the absence of Sigismondo and his relatives, he knocked down the gates; then, "climbing up over the top of the tower, killing all those who stood before him, he raised the flags with the arms of the Emperor.
The soldiers who were storming the other side of the castle, seeing the flag with the imperial insignia on the tower, gathered with the rest of the troops stationed around the town; together with the royal ministers, having made sure that the town was under the control of their own militia, they entered Bivona:
The royal ministers exercised "acts of strict justice": they hanged numerous inhabitants of Bivona in the main square of the town and in different "parts of the land"; others were quartered, driven into exile, placed in prisons, stripped "of their belongings."

The sacking of the Bivona castle

After raging against the people of Bivona, in the hope that someone would "give him De Luna into his hands, or at least let him know where he was locked up," Federico Perollo had the castle of Bivona sacked, stripping the building and the town of all their wealth:
On August 17, 1529 they returned to Sciacca, with "their swords and shields still stained with the blood of their enemies."

The return to Sciacca

Returning to Sciacca, Ministers Pollastra and Riganti, in a ruling on Sept. 13, 1529, declared Sigismondo de Luna and his men "guilty of the crime of felony and lese-majesty"; despite their contumacy, Sigismondo and his men were sentenced to death and had their property confiscated.
The judges of the grand criminal court arrested numerous nobles and plebeians belonging to the de Luna faction and executed them; they issued throughout the kingdom notices of arrest against all those who had served Sigismondo; they sent to Messina, to the viceroy, some jurors from Sciacca accused of connivance with the de Luna family.
Not even the city of Sciacca was exempt from the severe punishment administered by the two ministers: it was condemned to pay a large sum of money "for not having given aid to the captain of arms Girolamo Statella"; later, the sentence was remitted by Viceroy Pignatelli. Below is Savasta's detailed description:
On October 4, 1529 the royal ministers Pollastra and Riganti, after spending forty-nine days in Bivona and Sciacca, decided to return to Messina. On the morning of the following day the two left accompanied by Federico Perollo and his brother Friar Domenico: Perollo's purpose was to personally thank the viceroy of Sicily Ettore Pignatelli. On October 15 the various troops who rushed to Perollo's aid, offered by the marquis of Geraci and the princes of Castelvetrano and Partanna, were dismissed.

Sigismondo in Rome

Leaving Sicily on August 13, after "a long and disastrous journey," Sigismondo de Luna reached Civitavecchia; from there, he made his way to Rome. Count Luna fled Bivona with his wife, three sons and his most trusted men, taking with him all that he could gather of his wealth before his flight:
In Rome Sigismondo sought the protection and assistance of Pope Clement VII, his cousin-in-law. His wife Luisa Salviati was the daughter of Lucrezia de' Medici, niece of Pope Leo X and cousin of Pope Clement VII.

Charles V and Clement VII

Sigismondo de Luna's aim was to obtain the pardon and grace of Charles V through the papal authority of Clement VII. A few months ago, the Treaty of Barcelona had been concluded between Clement VII and Charles V, at the conclusion of the war pitting the Habsburgs against the League of Cognac: under this agreement, Charles V would be crowned emperor by the pontiff himself.
Considering the seriousness of the actions committed by his nephew, Clement VII resolved to wait for a propitious opportunity to hope for a favorable response from Charles V; in the meantime, Sigismondo de Luna began to frequent noble circles in Rome.
The opportunity presented itself on February 24, 1530, the day on which the Pope was to crown the Emperor in Bologna:
The Pontiff did not want to reply to the Emperor and went on with the coronation; he left again for Rome with a "distressed mood."
Two days later, the Pope again came to Charles to ask him for a pardon "with humbler and more fervent supplications." The Emperor, recognizing the greatness of Clement VII, "the first among the Emperors, and kings of the world," granted the pardon to Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna, Sigismondo's father, to Luisa Salviati and to Pietro, Giulio and Giacomo. Sigismondo, however, remained "with no more hope of pardon." Charles V even decreed that "by the hand of an executioner his head should be cut off on a stage so that an eternal infamy to his name may be left.".

The suicide of Sigismondo de Luna

Arriving back in Rome, Pope Clement VII informed his nephews of Charles V's decision. Sigismondo de Luna, who had been anxiously awaiting news of the possible pardon he had received through the help of his uncle the pontiff, as soon as he heard of the imperial decree pronounced against himself, "became dismayed in a manner, that he became all cold, and half dead."
Having lost all hope and in the grip of regret and despair, Sigismund, "furious and maddened," ran hastily through the streets of Rome; finally, he reached the Tiber and threw himself into it, dying drowned.
The news of his death shook the entire family:
With the death of de Luna, there was a definitive end to the second case of Sciacca, which saw the death of the two protagonists of the conflict, Sigismondo II de Luna and Giacomo Perollo.

Consequences

The "deplorable state" of the city of Sciacca

At the end of the conflict, the state city of Sciacca remained in a "very deplorable state, feeling among all the cities of the kingdom the most vivid pain of its wounds, and the most sensitive bitterness of its miseries. For it remained depopulated in the multitude of its inhabitants, destroyed in the magnificence of its buildings, and impoverished in the abundance of its wealth."
The population went from about 25,000 inhabitants in 1328 to about 35,000 in 1459, to just 12,000 in the period following the civil war between the Luna and Perollo families. For this reason, the people of Sciacca sang:
In 1575, as a result of the plague that occurred in Sicily on May 23, the town of Sciacca lost 5,000 people, reaching about 7,000 in January 1576, when the contagion ceased. The plague struck again in Sciacca in 1625, the disease being "brought from the city of Palermo by a certain Ragamazzo, a native of Sciacca." In the month of January 1629 "the said evil was seen to rage with full force." In the month of August another 5,000 people died.

The feudal properties of the de Luna family

Due to the intercession of Pope Clement VII, Emperor Charles V reinstated the paternal states to Sigismondo de Luna's sons, who were nevertheless forced to pay all the damages suffered by the Perollo and their men.
Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna, on the other hand, was investigated because he was accused of having authorized the undertaking of Sigismondo, his son: only later did the viceroy of Sicily, remembering the support he had received on several occasions from Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna, allowed him to be interrogated at home by "a young and inexperienced master notary." He was then interrogated by the viceroy. The de Luna received only a light sentence, "less for complicity than for help given to the offenders after the events."
Giovanni Vincenzo's feudal property, which had been confiscated, was returned only a few years later, probably after Charles V granted an indult to Sigismondo's sons.
According to these provisions, enforced in Sicily on March 12, 1534, Giovanni Vincenzo de Luna was given back the 500 onze of annuity, previously seized by the tax authorities. On February 24, 1536, the Magna Regia Curia decreed the amount that Sigismondo's sons had to pay back to the Perollo family: 11,966.20 onze in damages. The numerous appeals filed by the de Luna family, however, resulted in a settlement only on June 28, 1549: according to this, Pietro de Luna, son of Sigismondo and new count of Caltabellotta and Sclafani and baron of Bivona following the death of his grandfather Giovanni Vincenzo, compensated Brigida Perollo and his children by 4. 800 onze, equal to about 24,000 florins.
In 1554, Charles V elevated Bivona to a duchy and a city, and Pietro de Luna was the first Sicilian noble to acquire the title of duke.

The end of the de Luna and Perollo families

Following the death of Giovanni Vincenzo, Pietro, first duke of Bivona, headed the de Luna family. He returned to Sicily around the mid-1540s, but did not return to Sciacca: he fixed his residence in Palermo. Then invested with the ducal title by Charles V in 1554, he fixed his residence in the ducal palace of Bivona, together with his bride Isabella de Vega, daughter of the viceroy of Sicily Juan de Vega: from her he had three daughters and one son, who died prematurely. On his second marriage to Angela La Cerda, he had a son, Giovanni, who in turn, having had no children from his marriage to Belladama Settimo and Valguarnera, caused the extinction of the de Luna family.
The Perollo family, on the other hand, "did not last so short," but remained "fruitful for more than a century and a half."

Chronology of events

  • June 1529: privateer Sericono Bassà arrives in Sciacca; Baron Giacomo Perollo frees the Baron of Solunto, unleashing the wrath of Count Sigismondo de Luna
  • June 19, 1529: de Luna's men sneak into Sciacca.
  • July 14, 1529: Girolamo Statella, having arrived in Sciacca, orders Sigismondo to leave the city.
  • July 16, 1529: Statella has twenty of count de Luna's men hanged in Bivona.
  • July 19, 1529: Sigismondo and his men attack Sciacca; Statella is killed by the arbëreshë Giorgio Comito.
  • July 23, 1529: death of Giacomo Perollo.
  • Aug. 1, 1529: Sigismondo de Luna enters Bivona victorious.
  • Aug. 11, 1529: battle of Blood Valley between royal and de Luna troops.
  • Aug. 13, 1529: Sigismondo de Luna sets sail from the mouth of the Verdura River for Rome; Bivona is sacked by Perollo's men.
  • Aug. 17, 1529: royal ministers Pollastra and Riganti return to Sciacca.
  • Oct. 5, 1529: Federico Perollo and the royal ministers depart again for Messina.
  • February 24, 1530: Coronation of Charles V in Bologna.
  • Feb. 26 or 27, 1530: after Charles V refuses him a pardon, Sigismondo de Luna commits suicide, drowning himself in the Tiber.

Literature

The continuous struggles and battles between the de Luna and Perollo families are the main theme of the novel 'U caso di Sciacca, written by Sciacca poet Vincenzo Licata entirely in Sicilian.
Vincenzo Navarro, a poet from Ribera, also composed a literary work in Sciacca about the conflict between the Luna and Perollo families: it is a tragedy, entitled Giacomo Perollo.