Conditions of the City and the Kingdom

Masaniello appeared on the scene like a new David. As he came to the fore,many thought that he was the long-awaited “just avenger”. Theauthor of an account, one that was never published, wrote enthusiastically:“Finally, the Divine Goodness, to show how immense is a spark of itsprovidence, has sent a David to liberate a people so faithful from thetoo-cruel and inhumane tyranny of a Saul-like nobility.”

This thought, that the revolt was holy, surfaces in witness reports, fromthat of the notary Giovan Francesco Montanario to that of the physicianGiuseppe Donzelli, and to one by the Count of Modène, who was alsosure that the Neapolitan revolt (which began on 7 July 1647 and ended inJune of the next year) was a propitious moment for his country, France. ForModène, Masaniello was “the terror of the Spaniard, thepersecutor of the proud, the avenger of public oppressions, and the uniqueliberator of his distressed fatherland.”

Why such certainty among observers? How did Masaniello, a man so lowly,manage to unite the opinions of a man of the cloth, a notary, a physician,and a French count? The chief cause can be found, above all, in the livingconditions in Naples and the kingdom both before and after the introductionof the gabella on fruit, for which cause the already deepdiscontent over the many gabelle saddled on the“horse of Naples”, grew far greater. The fiscal pressure grewconsiderably, from the first year of the Count of Monterey’sviceroyalty (May 1630–November 1637).