Spontaneous mass uprising and elite conspiracy combined in the Sicilian Vespers

Evidence

N.B. the example of the Sicilian Vespers, 257 and the arguments among historians about whether this was a spontaneous movement or one planned in advance. In my view the two elements were combined in the case of the Vespers. On the one hand, a spontaneous rising of the Sicilian people against their Provencal rulers which spread so rapidly that it gave the impression of simultaneity and hence of preconcertation; this rising was the result of an oppression which had become intolerable throughout the national territory. On the other hand, there was the conscious element, of varying importance and effectiveness, and the success of Giovanni da Procida’s plot with the Aragonese. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 808

Categorization

• QUESTION: Useful historical anchor for the spontaneity-versus-organization debate; worth verifying Gramsci’s reading of the Vespers against modern historiography.
• SEED: The Vespers is a concrete case for an essay on how ‘spontaneous’ uprisings are always co-constructed with elite plots — a reading that complicates romantic populism.
• XREF: connects to: Conspiracy theories about ruling elites date to ancient Rome. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 70