Sicilian Parliament
The Sicilian Parliament was the legislature of the Kingdom of Sicily.
History
The Sicilian Parliament is arguably one of the oldest parliaments in the world and the first legislature in the modern sense.[1][2]
In 1097 came the first conference in Mazara del Vallo convened by Roger I the Great Count. The parliament was initially travelling, as it had no official building to house it. The Sicilian Parliament was made up of three branches: one feudal, one ecclesiastical, and one from the towns. The feudal branch was formed by noble representatives of counties and baronies; the ecclesiastical branch was formed by archbishops, bishops, abbots and archimandrites, while the state-owned branch was formed by representatives of 42 autonomous towns in Sicily. The first Norman parliament had only an advisory function- especially in taxation, economics and wars- and was responsible for confirmation of the sovereign. Members were chosen from the more powerful nobles.[citation needed]
Since 1130, meetings have been held in the Palazzo dei Normanni, in Palermo. Its first radical change came with Frederick II of Sicily, who allowed access to parts of civil society.[citation needed]
After a period in the background during the reign of
In 1410 the Sicilian Parliament was held at
In Palermo, on 19 July 1812, the Sicilian Parliament, meeting in extraordinary session, declared the feudal regime abolished, promulgated the first Sicilian constitution, of English inspiration, and approved a radical reform of the state.[3] In 1816, the Parliament, along with the Kingdom of Sicily was abolished when the latter united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The Parliament only met again during the Sicilian revolution of 1848.
On 25 March 1848, the General Parliament of Sicily met in Palermo, with a revolutionary government composed of a president and ministers.
The final reconstitution of the Parliament came at the end of World War II, when, in order to defuse a budding separatist movement in Sicily, the island was granted special autonomy and its Parliament was reborn, on 25 May 1947, in Palermo, as the Sicilian Regional Assembly.
References
- ^ Storia del Parlamento - Il Parlamento
- ^ Enzo Gancitano, Mazara dopo i Musulmani fino alle Signorie - Dal Vescovado all'Inquisizione, Angelo Mazzotta Editore, 2001, p. 30.
- JSTOR 553867.
- ^ Amari, Michele (1849). "The Anglo-French Mediation in Sicily, or Post-scriptum to Sicily and the Bourbons".
- ^ Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions
Sources
- Antonino e Francesco Mongitore, Parlamenti Generali del Regno Di Sicilia: dall'anno 1446 sino al 1748, Palermo, 1749
- Salvo Di Matteo, Storia dell'antico Parlamento di Sicilia (1130-1849), Palermo, Mediterranea, 2012