Roger II of Sicily

Background

By 999, Norman adventurers had arrived in southern Italy. By 1016, they were involved in the complex local politics, where Lombards were fighting against the Byzantine Empire. As mercenaries they fought the enemies of the Italian city-states, sometimes fighting for the Byzantines and sometimes against them, but in the following century they gradually became the rulers of the major polities south of Rome.

Roger I ruled the County of Sicily at the time of the birth of his youngest son, Roger, at Mileto, Calabria, in 1095. Roger I's nephew, Roger Borsa, was the duke of Apulia and Calabria, and his great nephew, Richard II of Capua, was the prince of Capua. Alongside these three major rulers were a large number of minor counts, who effectively exercised sovereign power in their own localities. These counts at least nominally owed allegiance to one of these three Norman rulers, but such allegiance was usually weak and often ignored.

When Roger I died in 1101, his young son Simon became count, with his mother Adelaide del Vasto as regent. Simon died four years later in 1105 at the age of 12. Adelaide continued as regent to her younger son Roger, who was nine.

Reign

Rise to power in Sicily

Upon the death in 1105 of his elder brother, Simon of Hauteville, Roger inherited the County of Sicily under the regency of his mother, Adelaide del Vasto, and his brother-in-law, Robert of Burgundy (d. 1112), son of Robert the Old. His mother was assisted by such notables as Christodulus, the Greek emir of Palermo. In 1109, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos bestowed upon him the title of protonobilissimos in recognition of his knowledge of the Byzantine court. In the summer of 1110, Roger was visited by the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader, who was on his way to Jerusalem. The story in Icelandic sources suggests that Sigurd called Roger the king of Sicily twenty years before the latter actually obtained this title.

In 1112, at the age of sixteen, Roger began his personal rule, being named "now knight, now count of Sicily and Calabria" in a charter document dated 12 June 1112. In 1117, his mother, who had married Baldwin I of Jerusalem, returned to Sicily, since the patriarch of Jerusalem had declared the marriage invalid. Roger seems to have felt the slight, and this might explain his later reluctance to go crusading. Roger married his first wife, Elvira, daughter of King Alfonso VI of Castile and his fourth wife Isabella, who may be identical to his former concubine, a Muslim princess of the Abbadid dynasty named Zaida, who was baptized with the name of Isabella.

In 1122, Duke William II of Apulia, who was fighting with Count Jordan of Ariano, offered to renounce his remaining claims to Sicily as well as part of Calabria. Roger, in exchange, provided William with 600 knights and access to money for his campaign.

Rise to power in southern Italy

When William II of Apulia died childless in July 1127, Roger claimed all Hauteville family possessions in the peninsula as well as the overlordship of the Principality of Capua, which had been nominally given to Apulia almost thirty years earlier. However, the union of Sicily and Apulia was resisted by Pope Honorius II and by the subjects of the duchy itself.

The popes had long been suspicious of the growth of Norman power in southern Italy, and at Capua in December, the pope preached a crusade against Roger, setting Robert II of Capua and Ranulf II of Alife (his own brother-in-law) against him. After this coalition failed, in August 1128 Honorius invested Roger at Benevento as Duke of Apulia. The baronial resistance, backed by Naples, Bari, Salerno, and other cities whose aim was civic freedom, gave way. In September 1129 Roger was generally recognized as duke of Apulia by Sergius VII of Naples, Robert of Capua, and the rest. He began at once to enforce order in the duchy, where ducal power had long been fading.

On the death of Pope Honorius in February 1130 there were two claimants to the papal throne. Roger supported Antipope Anacletus II against Innocent II. The reward was a crown, and, on 27 September 1130, Anacletus' papal bull made Roger king of Sicily. He was crowned in Palermo on Christmas Day 1130.

Roger II's elaborate royal mantle bears the year 528 of the Islamic calendar (1133–34); therefore it could not have been used for his coronation. This lavish item, made for special events to show power and regality, was most likely worn as a symbol of the Norman's victory and new dynasty in Sicily. It was later used as a coronation cloak by the Holy Roman Emperors and is now in the Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer) in Vienna.

The mantle is an example of the Normans' multicultural court and a mark of trade in Palermo. It is a luxury object made from red silk imported from the Byzantine Empire, its outer panels embellished with gold embroidery, pearls, enamel and jewels. The lining panels are separated into five sections made from three separate silks, each woven with gold. The pearls are from the Persian Gulf, with thousands outlining each section of the embroidery. Pearls were a common decoration on pan-Mediterranean textiles, but were also used and admired on clothing of the Byzantine Empire. The enameled surfaces are also attributed to the Byzantine Empire, as they had many craftsmen specializing in this type of work. The gold embroidery was most likely created by Muslim craftsmen, given the tiraz bands, the Arabic text in calligraphy, and Kufic script. The piece was made in a private royal workshop, dedicated to creating tiraz fabric and other royal garments. It is one of few surviving mementos of Fatimid-style royal garb preserved in its entirety.

Economy

Roger's reforms in laws and administration aimed not only to strengthen his rule but also to improve the economic standing of Sicily and southern Italy. He was "very concerned to gain money, but hardly very prodigal in expending it".

In 1140 at his assembly at Ariano he introduced new coinage including smaller denominations, to facilitate trade with the rest of the Mediterranean. However, although this new coinage made long-distance trade easier, it was detrimental to local trade, which spread "hatred throughout Italy". By the 1150s most of this coinage was no longer in use and soon after, it disappeared altogether.

Nevertheless, the controversy over the coinage did not hinder the Kingdom's prosperity. Roger II had acquired large wealth not only through his royal patrimony but also through his military campaigns and their financial rewards. For example, gold and silver were gained through the campaigns in Apulia in 1133 and Greece in 1147.

Sicily's geographic situation at the centre of the Mediterranean favored trade with Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Its primary export was durum wheat; others included foods like cheese and vine fruits. Unlike other states, Sicily also had a strong political and military standing, so its merchants were supported and to some extent protected. This standing allowed for an increase in internal trade and a stronger market, which led to noticeable developments in agriculture.

Later reign

Roger had now become one of the greatest kings in Europe. At Palermo, he gathered round him distinguished men from a variety of ethnicities and cultures, such as the famous Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi and the Byzantine Greek historian Nilus Doxopatrius or Neilos Doxapatres. Sicily, in the center of the Mediterranean and a natural stopping point for people traveling across it, had been run by several different groups in its history, and Roger welcomed the learned and practiced tolerance toward the several religions, ethnicities and languages of his realm. To administer his domain he hired many Greeks and Arabs, who were trained in long-established traditions of centralized government. He was served by men of several nationalities, such as the Englishman Thomas Brun, a kaid of the Curia, and in the fleet by two Greeks, first Christodulus and then George of Antioch, whom he made in 1132 ammiratus ammiratorum or "Emir of Emirs", in effect prime vizier. (This title later became the English word admiral). On the mainland, royal government also relied on local military commanders, including royal constables (comestabuli), who helped coordinate provincial forces and lesser barons during the kingdom's formative decades. Roger made Sicily the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean.

A powerful fleet was built up under several admirals, or "emirs", of whom the greatest was George, formerly in the service of the Muslim prince of Mahdia. Mainly thanks to him, a series of conquests were made on the African coast (1146-1153). From 1135 Roger II started to conquer the coast of Tunisia and enlarge his dominions: Tripoli was captured in 1146 and Cape Bona in 1148. These conquests were lost in the reign of Roger's successor William, however, and never formed an integral part of the kingdom in southern Italy.

The Second Crusade (1147-1148) offered Roger an opportunity to revive attacks on the Byzantine Empire, the traditional Norman enemy to the East. It also afforded him an opportunity, through the agency of Theodwin, a cardinal ever-vigilant for Crusade supporters, to strike up a correspondence with Conrad III of Germany in an effort to break his alliance with Manuel I Comnenus. Roger himself never went on an expedition against Byzantium, instead handing command to the skillful George. In 1147, George set sail from Otranto with seventy galleys to attack Corfu. According to Nicetas Choniates, the island capitulated thanks to George's bribes (and the tax burden of the imperial government), welcoming the Normans as their liberators. Leaving a garrison of 1,000 men, George sailed on to the Peloponnesus. He sacked Athens and quickly moved on to the Aegean Islands. He ravaged the coast all along Euboea and the Gulf of Corinth and penetrated as far as Thebes, where he pillaged the silk factories and carried off the damask, brocade, and silk weavers, taking them back to Palermo where they formed the basis for the Sicilian silk industry. George capped the expedition with a sack of Corinth, in which the relics of Saint Theodore were stolen, and then returned to Sicily. In 1149, however, Corfu was retaken. George went on a punitive expedition against Constantinople, but could not land and instead defied the Byzantine emperor by firing arrows against the palace windows. Despite this act, his expedition left no enduring effects.

Modern legacy

Roger is the subject of King Roger, a 1926 opera by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. The last months of his life are also featured in Tariq Ali's book A Sultan in Palermo. Studiorum Universitas Ruggero II, a private non-traditional university connected to Accademia Normanna was incorporated in the U.S. on 30 April 2001 in his honor.

Family

Roger's first marriage was in 1117 to Elvira, a daughter of King Alfonso VI of Castile. When she died, rumors flew that Roger had died as well, as his grief had made him a recluse. They had six children:

Roger III (1118 - 12 May 1148), heir, Duke of Apulia (from 1135), possibly also Count of Lecce.

Tancred (1120-1138), Prince of Bari (from 1135).

William I (1120/1121 - 7 May 1166), his successor, Duke of Apulia (from 1148).

Alfonso (1122 - 10 October 1144), Prince of Capua (from 1135) and Duke of Naples.

Adelisia (1126 - post 1184), who married firstly Jocelyn, Count of Loreto, and secondly Robert III, Count of Loritello.

Henry (1130 - 1143), prince of Taranto.

Roger's second marriage was in 1149 to Sibylla, daughter of Hugh II, Duke of Burgundy. They had two children:

Henry (29 August 1149 - died young)

Stillborn child (16 September 1150)

Roger's third marriage was in 1151 to Beatrice of Rethel, a grandniece of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. They had one daughter:

Constance (born posthumously, 2 November 1154 - 28 November 1198), who married Emperor Henry VI and was later Queen of Sicily

Roger also had five known illegitimate children:

- By a daughter of Hugues I, Count of Molise: