 1. Reasons for making a choice When the association "Siculargonensia" of Randazzo decided
in 1995 to create a historical court for a certain period they found themselves discussing
about three recalling hypothesis. The first was centered on the figurehead of Federico II,
the second on the promenade of Randazzo of the emperor Carlo V in 1535, the third, the
permanence in the city of the vicar of the kingdom, Bianca di Navarra in 1411. The ideal
solution was to answer three fondamental exigencies: to have an image of spectacularity,
to remember a prosperous period of the city, to celebrate a personage that would have had
a positive role in the towns affairs and of the sicilians in general. Was discarded the
personage of Carlo V since his promenade, for Sicily and for Randazzo, signified a period
of unhappiness (pestilenze e saccheggi) and , above all, the definite loss of hope of
resumption of the autonomy of the island.
The arrival of Federico in our town is scarsely documented
and widely celebrated in various islands that recall. The historical personality of the
queen Bianca di Navarra, instead, attracted attention for different reasons: because in a
flourishing time period of the city, of the Aragonese, when the king of Sicily chose it as
a summer residence of the court, they raised the Royal Building and renewed the wall
limits, they endowed the church with treasuries and reconfirmed privileges and immunity,of
old age to the city .. In addition the promenade of the queen is well documented and
testifies the importance of the city property, where the queen stopped many times.
Bianca wrote various letters from Randazzo and others were
written on the cities political and financial issues of the time. The correspondence is
saved and pubblished in the art work of Raffaele Starrabba, letters and documents
relatively to vicariato of the queen Bianca in Sicily, Palermo, 1933.But another reason
really convinced us. The attempt of the queen to convoke a parliament of all the
Sicilian's fedualities, so that a king could be picked out, to be in a position to bring
an accord between the different parties, to overcome the emergence of the civil war and
bring back peace and well-being to the island. The attempt, that failed, with serious
consequences for the sicilian history, it leaves us to admire, also because it was
conducted by a very young woman that was able to demonstrate a certain determination and
an uncommonly strong state of mind . We resaw in her art work, that taste of liberty, the
scent of independence that then was lost, that puts enthusiasm in the heart and makes it
worthy to celebrate a personage.That famous parliament Bianca should have had celebrated
at Randazzo on July of 1411.
2. Bianca di Navarra is the twilight of Sicily's kingdom.
Princess of Navarra, Bianca married at a very young age,
Martino I, called the young, king of Sicily from 1392. At the death
of her husband (1409), was left alone with the title vicar of the kingdom and, at the
death of her father-in-law, Martino II, king of Aragona, she found herself in a middle of
a complex political situation. An emptiness of power that was created was added, indeed,
the dynastic crisis, because the the two kings that passed away didn't leave direct heirs.
In the island started a period of disorder due to the rebellion of the count Cabrera,
grand executioner of the kingdom, in which was intended to oppose the requests of the
feudalis from that faction "latina" and, marrying Bianca, to become king.
The count fomented rivalry and discords and induced to the
rebellion, numerous cities that were devoted to the crown, like Siracusa and Randazzo. The
queen, on the contrary, searched to reunite the strengths of the devoted to the monarchy
and to reconquer one after the other the squares that were occupied by Cabrera. With her
itinerant court crossed in lenthwise and in width the island of Sicily several times,
recalling, forgiving, looking always for a consent, sending decrees and
"capitoli" in favor of, to all the universitates o terrae. The queen worked on
to reheal the finances, to remove reasons and, above all, searched to convoke that
parliament that brought the discords, decided on a king grateful to all, that would
guarantee the state of Regnum autonomous, as much as always colligated dynastical to
Aragona.
Bianca married the interests of the Regnum Siciliae and she
acted as a sicilian, that loves what she feels hers from destiny the land for which she
spended all her energy,"...in honuri do la casa regali et conservacioni di la nacioni
cathalana, la quali non altrament ki comu sichiliani volimu tractari..." (Taormina,
22 August 1411). In 1411, before the arrival in Sicilia of viceroy Giovanni di Penafiel,
Bianca returned to Navarra. Soon after Giovanni reentered in Spain, married Bianca and in
1458 both of them sat on the throne of Aragona.
3. Bianca and Randazzo
 The corrispondence of Bianca between 1411 and 1412
start from different localities: Aidone, S. Filippo d'Argiro, Nicosia, Troina, Militello,
Avola, Taormina, Piazza Armerina, Palermo, Catania, Lentini, to cite the most frequently
mentioned and the most important. From Randazzo in all together 27 letters written. Only
in some of these is talked about issues inherent to the city, those that are coherent,
instead in six missives are written elsewhere and addressed to the captain, to the
attested, to vicesecret, to all the universities. Namely to analyse, by abstract, the
contents of the letters to understand in what condition Randazzo was at that time period
and which problems were predominant.
From the first letter April 30, 1411 we come to learn that
the queen congratulates herself with her counselors "per una volta reduchiri a totali
nostra obediencia la terra di randazu" and expressed the preoccupation for the
selection of the place in which "faisi lu parlamentu generali, da ki a Missina non si
po fari per la mortalitati...". And exactly these are in synthesis the agitated
subjects in the letters in pertinence to the Randazzese: The reassessment of the public
affairs after the unsuccessful rebellion; the appointed and the emoluments of the king's
officials; The proposal to convoke at Randazzo the General Parliament. In the mean time,
the queen glad to know that in the city was brought back again obedience, confirms in
their roles all of her officials that stayed devoted to her.
Forgives and returns their goods and rights, the rebellious
with the exception of some, bounded to exile (Troina, 2 June 1411). The most important
document, is for certain the letter that contains the "Capituli ordinati per la
universitati di randazu...Trahine 11 iunii 1411" in which we found signs of
administratives measures that we found in the text of the Consuetudini di Randazzo
confirmed in 1466. Is obtained an image of a city state with all the privileges and the
guarantees of pertinence: appoints for ballot the public officials, that had nothing to do
with feudali's bondings, rights to their own tax collection, exemption of the citizens of
the drafting obligations, absolute liberty of movement and to trade with other people of
the kingdom. Various letters regarding to economical issues that had to do with the
captain's payment and from this emerged, which would be the most important role: the
captain, the judges, the attested, the treasurer (Randazzo, 8 August 1411).
Another hint of the authorities we find it in the letter
that describe the greetings of the ceremonies made in the city at  the
arrival of the sovereign, 3 June, 1411: "lu baruni di crimasta capitaneu di randazu
et la universitati, ni mandaru ambaxaturi lu archipresti di randazu et iudichi nicola di
astasi, supplicandoni ki li richipissimu in gracia et merci...hodie intrammu feliciter in
quista terra, undi fommu richiputi et ascuntrati cum solemni festa at allegriza da tucti
universaliter..." January 14, 1413 the queen asks Randazzo to send immediately to
Lentini "dui oy tri boni homini di quissa terra...ca e di gran bisognu per trattari
alcuni cosi necessarii tangenti lu exaltamentu et honuri di lu serenissimu signuri don
ferrandu re di aragona et di siclia...".
All signs, those mentioned, that the city had fully
recuperated trust of the sovereign. And coming, in the end, on theissue of the convocation
of the general Parliament that dragged on for at least two months. Bianca would have liked
to convocate the assembly in the faithfulness Messina, but it was impossible due to the
pestilence. In one letter of June 6, 1411 from Randazzo the sovereign suggests the sites
of Randazzo and Caltagirone, but she gives the choice to the Messinesi. They pointed out
Costoro first Castroreale after, for reasons that we don't know with precision, the
Parliament takes place at Taormina on 23 August 1411. Two years later, with a letter from
Catania dated, 4 January 1413 (a copy that was sent out even at Paterno', Nicosia, Troina
and Enna with the same request) orders the land of Randazzo, in occasion of the new
general Parliament convocated at Catania, to send with urgency edible products at one's
disposal "undi li vindirannu a convinivuli et bonu preciu" means of support of
the gran mass of those present. July 26, 1414 from Randazzo the vicar announced the next
coming of one of the king's children in Sicily and August 8 always from Randazzo the king
Ferdinando I send out the first decree of his kingdom. The importance of the city, as a
summer place of the throne, in that way, comes confirmated definitively.
Giuseppe Severini |
