Twelve Days' Monarchy
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Kingdom of the People of Amalfi | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1642–1642 | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
| Capital | Casartium | ||||||||
| Common languages | Amalfitan | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||
| Rex Amalphitanorum | |||||||||
• 12 - 22 March 1642 | Ecirius Taranus Roscii | ||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern | ||||||||
• Coup of the Senate | 12 March 1642 | ||||||||
• Battle of Field of Black Roses | 22 March | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 24 March 1642 | ||||||||
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The Twelve Days' Monarchy was a short-lived monarchy installed after a coup of the Senate of Amalfi amid the Prataian Crisis in 1642, Amalfi's "Year of Turmoil". Ecirius Taranus Roscii, an Amalfitan general, declared himself Rex Amalphitanorum, King of the Amalfitans, at Casartium on 12 March and was recognised by the instigators of the coup in Trasimene and several other commanders. He led his supporters to the capital and they attained victory over Senatorial forces at the Field of Black Roses on the 22nd. On the 24th, as his army was preparing to march triumphant into Trasimene, it was discovered that Roscii had been killed in the battle two days before. With no one willing or able to take over the administration, the revolution foundered and collapsed without ever entering the capital. A Senatorial army arriving from the north three days later destroyed all remnants of the monarchist forces and reinstated the Senate, effectively ending the first and only attempt at an Amalfitan monarchy.
Name
Roscii styled himself King of the Amalfitans, Rex Amalphitanorum, but never gave an identifiable name for his dominion, which he referred to only as the kingdom (regnum) or Amalfi (Amalphia). One of the leading figures of the Senate coup, Maninus Cimuus Pelinus, accepted the capitulation of the town of Baria, near Casartium, in the name of the Kingdom of the People of Amalfi, Regnum Populi Amalphiæ. The name Regnum Amalphitanorum, derived from Roscii's styling, has also been used by scholars, but by far the most common name speaks to the kingdom's brief existence: the Twelve Days' Monarchy.
Background
History
The political vacuum left by the coup severely threatened the stability of Amalfi as a federal entity. The leaders of the coup needed a strong figure to take control of the state but because of their involvement knew they could not themselves assume power. One of its members, Antius Lavianus Tesivu, wrote an urgent letter to his friend, prominent general Ecirius Taranus Roscii, recommending he declare himself ruler and take over emergency administration. He promptly declared himself Rex Amalphitanorum, King of the Amalfitans, and instituted an absolute monarchy. Casartium was declared the seat of the new monarchy and the Senate was declared abolished.
Roscii spent the first week of his reign gathering his supporters' forces at Casartium and having them swear loyalty to him. He ordered the Military Academy at Casartium to change its name to Royal Military Academy and to amend all their texts with the name, with which its academics willingly complied. On the 20th, he led his army in a march on Trasimene, where Senatorial loyalists had driven out the coup's leaders and were reassembling. The two factions met in battle on the Field of Black Roses (Ager Rosarum Nigrarum) where the monarchist forces were victorious and routed the loyalists. They reached the capital on the 23rd and camped overnight. The following morning, as Roscii's subordinates prepared to march triumphant into the city with their king at their head, they discovered that he was nowhere to be found. It soon became all too apparent that not only was he lost, he was almost certainly dead, having last been seen during the battle two days before. Few among the commanders who had sworn loyalty to Roscii were willing to accept any of his subordinates as their overlord, and none were willing to assume Roscii's position. A number of generals decided they would prefer Senatorial authority to any substitute for Roscii, and these abandoned the revolution, taking their armies with them. Those who remained indecisively waited outside the capital, some in the hope that their king was not actually dead, and were found and destroyed by a Senatorial army under general Corsixus Rentius Salrosa, who reinstated the Senate and thus ended the first and only Amalfitan monarchy.
