“Why would I go there?” complained Charles II. This heir to the kingdom of Anjou was very comfortable in his surroundings in Valois in northern France. At thirty-two, he had already traveled over much of his kingdom and had little interest in seeing more of it.
“Sire,” said Panguin, his agent, “it is not to see Caltabellotta, but to find a settlement with the Spanish to end the war.”
“Well, it’s a good thing,” said the monarch, as the beads of sweat gathered on his forehead. He was on his way to the southern Sicilian town and accompanied by his counselor Panguin. Charles II was only interested in settling the matter of the war that had erupted twenty years before. Those Sicilian peasants had had the audacity to attack his soldiers when they were merely doing their duty. Charles couldn’t
