Macalda di Scaletta was a Sicilian baroness, warrior woman, lady-in-waiting, and courtesan during the Angevin and Aragonese periods. Though the daughter of Giovanni di Scaletta and a Sicilian noblewoman, she was of humble origins. Macalda was noted for her unscrupulous political conduct, inclination to betray marriage (political and human), and for her easy and promiscuous sexual habits. Besides her military education, Macalda is also noted for another quality, unusual as it is for a medieval woman: she knew how to play chess, for which she can be recognized as a historical first among women and in Sicilian chess. Records of her actions and character vary significantly in the various records of her life, from a deceptive, scheming harlot to a beautiful and noble (if promiscuous) woman.
Her family was of very humble social extraction, and initially experienced distressed economic conditions, from which they would be able to skillfully free themselves thanks to an unstoppable social rise, whose apex was reached by Macalda. The very young Macalda was first taken as wife by Guglielmo Amico, who once had been baron of Ficarra, but was then despoiled of property and exiled in the time of the Swabians. Both parties sought advantage from the marriage, but the hopes of Macalda’s husband were dashed and he eventually ended up in complete poverty. Macalda had no remorse: without regrets she abandoned her husband dying in the Templars' Hospital, and began wandering for some time, wearing the habit of a friar minor, sojourning in various provinces between Messina and Naples, and exhibiting behavior that was not impeccable. In Naples, particularly, the widow would be entwined in an incestuous relationship with a relative. Having gone back to Messina, she slipped unrecognized into the house of another relative, with whom she committed to a new sexual relationship that verged on incestuous. Finally Macalda, by the will of King Charles, even succeeded in getting confirmation of her ownership of the property claimed in vain by her now dead husband, Guglielmo d'Amico.
Again by royal will the woman was given in marriage to Alaimo da Lentini, who at the time was quite influential in Angevin circles. His first marriage had been with another woman also named Macalda. When Alaimo's splendors at the Angevin court were about to decline, it was thanks to the maneuvers of his intriguing wife that he managed to rebuild his reputation, at first with the Sicilians, becoming one of the principal instigators of the Sicilian Vespers (a revolt that his consort also adhered to), and then at the Aragonese court. Once the revolt had broken out, in the situation that saw Alaimo leave to defend Messina from the siege, Macalda became the governor of Catania, acting in lieu of her husband. On that occasion, Macalda made herself the leading figure in Catania by an unscrupulous betrayal of the French who had rebelled against her in the clamor of the Vespers: after having feigned a gracious welcome, she stripped them of their property instead, and then left them to the mercy of the enraged people.
following the arrival of Peter of Aragon in Sicily, rises an intrigue sketched out by her with the purpose of getting herself the role of the king's "favorite". Once she learned of the Aragonese arriving in Randazzo, Macalda presented herself to them in great pomp, adorned with superb military attire, holding a silver mace in her hand, animated by intentions of sexual lust that were soon made explicit. However, the king was avoiding amorous adventures at the time; he feigned that he did not understand her intentions and, honoring her and treating her with courtesy, personally conducted her to the inn with an escort of knights. Peter's behavior did not make Macalda give up: by pretending not to understand, she began to follow the Aragonese in his itinerary across the island. Undeterred, Macalda engaged in a vigorous pursuit, following the king across Sicily, always seeking entry to wherever the king stayed.
Macalda and her husband eventually took part in Peter of Aragon’s new court, so intimate with the king as to be admitted to sit at his table. The defeat inflicted on her by Peter of Aragon's ostentatious marital fidelity gravely wounded her feminine pride, inciting Macalda to vindictive behavior, with acts of jealousy and emulation toward the court and particularly toward Queen Constance. Macalda began to defy her openly, acting like a royal highness, and made a show of snubbing and degrading going so far as refusing to call her "queen," and limiting her, in her haughtiness, to the reductive title "mother of the king’s son." The episodes of this rivalry led to great scandal in the surroundings, putting the queen's kindness and proverbial patience to a severe test.
Macalda’s husband eventually fell from favour, and he departed from the court. His supporters, Macalda among them, were prosecuted. Once Peter of Aragon died and his son took the throne, Macalda’s husband, who had survived until that time by the king’s goodwill, was executed. Macalda herself remained in captivity. Her captivity allowed another of her unexpected qualities to be revealed, that of chess player: we know in fact that, during her imprisonment in the Matagrifone castle of Messina, Macalda entertained herself at the game of chess with the Emir of Djerba, Margam ibn Sebir, who was also held in the prison. Also in these encounters, the haughty Macalda did not fail to astonish the bystanders and her jailers with the sensation caused by her "vivacity and the immodesty of her garments" that she flaunted.
From the time of her imprisonment, after the information on her proud address to Roger of Lauria and her entertainments in the prison of Matagrifone, practically every trace of Macalda is missing from the chronicles of the day, a silence that has warranted historians' presumption of her death a few years later.
Originally Posted by Shiki-pon
.NoyaMugwort
Posting Permissions
"Thou hast been a naughty child this twelvemonth. BRING THY HEAD."
