In 1266 the french pope Clement IV crowned the angevin Charles king of Sicily. Taormina, Catania, Caltanissetta, Agrigento and other cities refused the coronation and took sides with Konrad of Sweden, who was a hardly sixteen-year-old king. He was not ready to face the more expert Charles for the obvious inexperience because of his joungness. In October 29, 1268 he was defeated and cruelly beheaded in the market-place of Naples. Subsequently, the Charles's army, composed by loot-thirsty adventurers, occupied Sicily. Thus began what people defined the bad dominion of Angevins.
Citizens were subjected to new taxes and even to the so-called regal collections. Civic services suffered drastic restrictions. Discomfort due to the french oppressions led, in March 31, 1282, to the rebellion which belongs to history as the Sicilian Vespers.   Revolt, begun in Palermo, stretched at once in a lot of sicilian cities. Its charge for independence involved Taormina too, where the french monks were forced to escape from monasteries. Palermo, determined in sending away Angevins from Sicily, asked for intervention to the king Peter III of Aragon. He landed in Marsala and in few time conquered the whole isle. The military occupation due to Peter III determined a new breaking in the reign of the two Sicilies: the peninsular part, leaded by Naples, remained under the Angevins dominion, while the isle passed under the Aragoneses one.
In 1302, with the peace treaty of Caltabellotta, Frederic III of Aragon was awarded the isle, but with the prohibition to take the title of king of Sicily.
Dead in 1337, his son Peter II succeeded Frederic III, mentioned in the testament as universal heir and, transgressed the treaty, successor of the sicilian reign.
He died in 1342. Since that date to unification Sicily was ruled by regents.
In 1348, plague, the black death, propagated in the isle brought by the boats which came from east.
After ninety years of war between Angevins and Aragoneses, in 1372 the peace was reached: to the aragonese family was finally recognized the title of King of Sicily.
In 1395 Martin junior was crowned King of Sicily. Hardly eighteen-year-old he had married Mary of Aragon, Frederic III's daughter. He died in 1409 without legitimate heirs. The Sicilian Parliament met in Taormina, in Corvaja Palace, and nominated successor Martin the Great. He left the administration of Sicily to the daughter-in-law, whom Martin junior had married in second weddings.
The definitive submission of Sicily to Spain brought a period of stability and the isle was no more theathre for wars. But it again was oppressed with taxes. The Thirty Years' War, broken in 1618, forced Spain to sustain huge costs and Sicily was forced to contribute with huge subsidies.