This is the first detailed study of Sicilian life in the reign of Frederick III (1296-1337), a period that marked Sicily's transition from a bustling and prosperous Mediterranean emporium to a poor backwater torn apart by violence. This book, by focusing on Frederick III's crucial reign, argues that there were many more things ''wrong'' with Sicilian life than just the shape of its overseas trade relations. Placing itself between those who blame the foreigners and those who blame the Sicilians themselves, it shows that an entire nexus of factors and influences were at work in unravelling Sicilian life. It also demonstrates that these forces can be seen best in the forty years that followed Sicily's liberation from foreign control in the bloody war of the ''Sicilian Vespers.''