Chapter Two Eyes of Greece to Tyler of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Wat Tyler’s story greatly resembles that of Sicily, about a century previously (March 30, 1282). The people of Palermo went as usual in procession on Easter Monday to vespers in a church a short distance from the city. The French government, suspecting rebellion, had ordered that no Sicilian (male or female) should carry any weapon, and as a certain lady of great beauty, a bride, and the daughter of a gentleman of fortune, was on her way to the church, a French soldier, named Drochet, seized her, and under pretence of searching for weapons hidden under her dress, offered her brutal and licentious violence. Her screams soon collected a crowd, and, led by the husband of the bride, the people fell on the whole French garrison. St. Remi, the French governor, fell in the massacre, and the father of the bride was set up in his place.

April 4, 1282, at Catania, a young Frenchman named Jean Viglemada, attempted to take a similar liberty with Julia Villamelli, when her husband came up unexpectedly and killed the insulter. The lady rushed through the streets, demanding vengeance, and the people put 8000 of the French to death.