In the middle of the 13th century two French Popes, Urban IV (1261-64) and Clement IV (1265-68), decided that the French prince Charles I should become the King of Sicily. Not surprisingly; Charles agreed. But no one asked the Sicilians what they thought.
 

Charles I was a brutal king. He sent his army all over the island taxing and exploiting the Sicilian people mercilessly. He considered Sicilians inferior people and did not believe they had the will or courage to resist his abuse. He was deadly wrong. The day after Easter Sunday in the year 1282 A.D. a Sicilian women in Palermo was going to church for Vespers (evening) services. A French soldier stopped her. No one knows for sure if he intended to search her for weapons, which were outlawed by the French, or he intended to molest her. One thing is certain: when that Frenchman laid his hands on that Sicilian woman the whole island of Sicily screamed in unison – “ABBASTANZA!” The revolution that came to be known as the “Sicilian Vespers” began, and before it was over 5000 Frenchmen would meet their maker and thousands more would flee the island on ships, boats or anything that would float to escape Sicily’s indignation and rage.
 
Before the Vespers’ revolt Sicily was not a unified country. The people identified more with their towns or cities than Sicily as a whole. Thus, for example, a person who lived in Palermo was much more likely to call himself Palermitan than Sicilian. Vespers changed all that. People began to think of themselves as Sicilians. As a symbol of this new found sense of unit they created a flag. Because Palermo and Corleone were the centers of the revolt, the background of the flag is red representing the city of Palermo and yellow for Corleone. When the city of Messina was under siege by the French and Papal armies, the flag was draped over the city’s walls. Even today the colors of the Messina Football Club are Red and Yellow.
 
In the center of the flag is face of women surrounded by three bent legs representing the three points of the island. This is a very ancient symbol of Sicily going back to about 700 B.C. There are also three heads of wheat symbolizing Sicily’s agricultural wealth. At the time of the revolt, Palermo was a major Mediterranean grain center.
 

On January 4th 2000, the first law passed by the Sicilian legislature was one that recognized the flag as the official flag of Sicily and since then it has hung from all official buildings. The display of the Sicilian flag is mandatory on May 15th, the day of the Sicilian Autonomy, and on May 25th, the anniversary of the first session of the Sicilian Regional Assembly.