Roman Vespers
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The Roman Vespers was a popular revolt against French Revolutionary troops and Jacobinism. It broke out on 25 February 1798 in the Roman Republic, a satellite state of the First French Republic.[1]
Its trigger was Pope Pius VI's arrest and exile and the fall of the Papal States. The French seized the territory using general Mathurin-Léonard Duphot's murder by a Papal soldier on 28 December 1797 as a pretext.[2] They then forced the entire population to wear a tricolour cockade in place of crucifixes,[2] aiming to eradicate religion and local tradition rather than to create a new secularised society by force. They increased taxes, replaced all Christian symbols in the city with Jacobin ones,[3] and replaced the Gregorian calendar with the French Revolutionary Calendar.[2]
When some civic guards went to ask the residents to remove a cross they had placed on their cockades to distinguish themselves from the Jews, who were also considered strong supporters of the Republic, a riot that could already be felt in the air began: a crowd of commoners from Trastevere and Monti rioted and the civic guards were thrown into the river. The riot was put down by the French army.
References
- ↑ (in Italian) "II Vespro romano del 1798" (PDF).
- 1 2 3 (in Italian) RedazioneRoma (25 February 2016). "25 Febbraio 1798: quando Roma resistette al giacobinismo". AZIONE TRADIZIONALE (in Italian). Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ↑ (in Italian) "L'insorgenza romana del 1798: "Viva Maria! Viva il Papa!"". Centro Studi Giuseppe Federici (in Italian). 25 February 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2024.