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Birth:          22 Dec 1095 
Death:          26 Feb 1154 
Burial:         Palermo Cathedral, Italy

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_II_of_Sicily
Roger II (22 December 1095[1] – 26 February 1154) was King of Sicily, son of Roger I 
of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 
1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, and then King of Sicily in 1130. 
By the time of his death at the age of 58, Roger had succeeded in uniting all the 
Norman conquests in Italy into one kingdom with a strong centralized government.
Background[edit]

See also: Norman conquest of southern Italy

By 999, Norman adventurers had arrived in southern Italy.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]

When Roger I died in 1101, his young son, Simon of Hauteville, 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 just nine 
years old.[5]

Reign[edit]

Rise to power in Sicily[edit]

Upon the death of his elder brother, Simon of Hauteville, in 1105, Roger inherited the 
County of Sicily under the regency of his mother, Adelaide del Vasto. 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.[6] In the 
summer of 1110, Roger was visited by the Norwegian king Sigurd Jorsalfare, who was 
on his way to Jerusalem.[7] The story suggests that Sigurd gave Roger the name King 
of Sicily, twenty years before he 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.
[1] 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.[8] 
Roger married his first wife, Elvira, daughter of Alfonso VI of Castile, and his fourth 
queen, Isabella, who may be identical to his former concubine, the converted Moor, 
Zaida, baptised Isabella.

In 1122, William II the Duke of Apulia, who was fighting with Count Jordan of Ariano, 
offered to renounce his remaining claims to Sicily as well as part of Calabria.[9] Roger, 
in exchange, provided William with 600 knights and access to money for his 
campaign.[9]

Rise to power in southern Italy[edit]

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.

Royal investiture[edit]

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.[10] 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.[10] The 
reward was a crown,[10] and, on 27 September 1130, Anacletus' papal bull made 
Roger king of Sicily.[11] He was crowned in Palermo on Christmas Day 1130. Roger 
II's elaborate royal mantle bears the date 528 of the Islamic calendar (1133–34), 
therefore it could not have been used for his coronation.[12][13] It was later used as 
coronation cloak by the Holy Roman Emperors and is now in the Imperial Treasury 
(Schatzkammer) in Vienna.

Peninsular rebellions[edit]

This plunged Roger into a ten-year war. Bernard of Clairvaux, Innocent's champion, 
organized a coalition against Anacletus and his "half-heathen king." He was joined by 
Louis VI of France, Henry I of England, and the Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor. 
Meanwhile, southern Italy revolted.

In 1130, the Duchy of Amalfi revolted and in 1131, Roger sent John of Palermo across 
the Strait of Messina to join up with a royal troop from Apulia and Calabria and march 
on Amalfi by land while George of Antioch blockaded the town by sea and set up a 
base on Capri.[14] Amalfi soon capitulated.

In 1132, Roger sent Robert II of Capua and Ranulf II of Alife to Rome in a show of 
force in support of Anacletus. While they were away, Roger's half-sister Matilda, 
Ranulf's wife, fled to Roger claiming abuse. Simultaneously, Roger annexed Ranulf's 
brother's County of Avellino. Ranulf demanded the restitution of both wife and 
countship. Both were denied, and Ranulf left Rome against orders, with Robert 
following.

First Roger dealt with a rebellion in Apulia, where he defeated and deposed Grimoald, 
Prince of Bari, replacing him with his second son Tancred. Meanwhile, Robert and 
Ranulf took papal Benevento. Roger went to meet them but was defeated at the 
Battle of Nocera on 25 July 1132. Roger retreated to Salerno.

The next year, Lothair III came down to Rome for his imperial coronation. The rebel 
leaders met him there, but they were refused help because Lothair's force was too 
small.[15] With the emperor's departure, divisions in his opponents' ranks allowed 
Roger to reverse his fortunes. By July 1134, Roger's troops had forced Ranulf, 
Sergius, and the other ringleaders to submit. Robert was expelled from Capua and 
Roger installed his third son, Alfonso of Hauteville as Prince of Capua. Roger II's 
eldest son Roger was given the title of Duke of Apulia.

Meanwhile, Lothair's contemplated attack upon Roger had gained the backing of Pisa, 
Genoa, and the Byzantine emperor John II, each of whom feared the growth of a 
powerful Norman kingdom. A Pisan fleet led by the exiled prince of Capua dropped 
anchor off Naples in 1135. Ranulf joined Robert and Sergius there, encouraged by 
news coming from Sicily that Roger was fatally ill or even already dead. The important 
fortress of Aversa, among others, passed to the rebels and only Capua resisted, under 
the royal chancellor, Guarin. On June 5, however, Roger disembarked in Salerno, 
much to the surprise of all the mainland provinces. The royal army, split into several 
forces, easily conquered Aversa and even Alife, the base of the natural rebel leader, 
Ranulf. Most of the rebels took refuge in Naples, which was besieged in July, but 
despite poor health conditions within the city, Roger was not able to take it, and 
returned to Messina late in the year.

Imperial invasion[edit]
 
In 1136, the long-awaited imperial army, led by Lothair and the duke of Bavaria, Henry 
the Proud, descended the peninsula to support the three rebels. Henry, Robert, and 
Ranulf took a large contingent of troops to besiege the peninsular capital of the 
kingdom, Salerno. Roger remained in Sicily, leaving its mainland garrisons helpless 
under the chancellor Robert of Selby, while even the Byzantine emperor John II 
Comnenus sent subsidies to Lothair. Salerno surrendered, and the large army of 
Germans and Normans marched to the very south of Apulia. There, in June 1137, 
Lothair besieged and took Bari. At San Severino, after the victorious campaign, he 
and the pope jointly invested Ranulf as duke of Apulia in August 1137, and the 
emperor then retired to Germany. Roger, freed from the utmost danger, immediately 
disembarked in Calabria, at Tropea, with 400 knights and other troops, probably mostly 
Muslims. After having been welcomed by the Salernitans, he recovered ground in 
Campania, sacking Pozzuoli, Alife, Capua, and Avellino. Sergius was forced to 
acknowledge him as overlord of Naples and switch his allegiance to Anacletus: that 
moment marked the fall of an independent Neapolitan duchy, and thereafter the 
ancient city was fully integrated into the Norman realm.

From there Roger moved to Benevento and northern Apulia, where Duke Ranulf, 
although steadily losing his bases of power, had some German troops plus some 1,500 
knight from the cities of Melfi, Trani, Troia, and Bari, who were "ready to die rather 
than lead a miserable life." On 30 October 1137, at the Battle of Rignano (next to 
Monte Gargano), the younger Roger and his father, with Sergius of Naples, met the 
defensive army of Duke Ranulf. It was the greatest defeat of Roger II's career. 
Sergius died and Roger fled to Salerno. It capped Ranulf's meteoric career: twice 
victor over Roger. Anacletus II died in January 1138, but Innocent II refused to 
reconcile with the King.

In spring 1138, the royal army invaded the Principality of Capua, with the precise 
intent of avoiding a pitched battle and of dispersing Ranulf's army with a series of 
marches through difficult terrain. While the count of Alife hesitated, Roger, now 
supported by Benevento, destroyed all the rebels' castles in the region, capturing an 
immense booty. Ranulf himself, who had taken refuge in his capital Troia, died of 
malaric fever on 30 April 1139. Later, Roger exhumed his body from his grave in Troia 
cathedral and threw it in a ditch, only to repent subsequently and rebury him decently.

At this time, with Sergius dead, Alfonso was elected to replace him and together with 
his brother Roger went off to conquer the Abruzzi.

Consolidation of kingship[edit]

After the death of Anacletus in January 1138, Roger had sought the confirmation of 
his title from Innocent. However, the pope wanted an independent Principality of 
Capua as a buffer state between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Papal States, 
something Roger would not accept.[16] In the summer of 1139, Innocent II invaded 
the kingdom with a large army, but was ambushed at Galluccio on 22 July 1139,[17] 
southeast of present-day Cassino, by Roger's son and was captured. Three days later, 
by the Treaty of Mignano, the pope proclaimed Roger II rex Siciliae ducatus Apuliae et 
principatus Capuae (king of Sicily, duke of Apulia and commander of Capua). The 
boundaries of his regno were only later fixed by a truce with the pope in October 
1144. These lands were for the next seven centuries to constitute the kingdoms of 
Naples and Sicily.

In 1139, Bari, the 50,000 inhabitants of which had remained unscathed behind its 
massive walls during the wars of the past year, decided to surrender. The 
excellentissimus princeps Jaquintus, who had led the rebellion of the city, was 
hanged, along with many of his followers, but the city avoided being sacked. Roger's 
execution of the prince and his counsellors was perhaps the most violent act of his 
life.

While his sons overcame pockets of resistance on the mainland, on 5 November 1139 
Roger returned to Palermo to plan a great act of legislation: the Assizes of Ariano, an 
attempt to establish his dominions in southern Italy as a coherent state. He returned to 
check on his sons' progress in 1140 and then went to Ariano, a town central to the 
peninsular possessions (and a centre of rebellion under his predecessors). There he 
promulgated the great law regulating all Sicilian affairs. It invested the king and his 
bureaucracy with absolute powers and reduced the authority of the often rebellious 
vassals. While there, centralising his kingdom, Roger declared a new standard 
coinage, named after the duchy of Apulia: the ducat.

Economy[edit]

 Roger’s reforms in laws and administration not only aimed 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."[18]

In 1140 at his assembly at Ariano he introduced new coinage to make it easier to 
trade with the rest of the Mediterranean, as there were smaller denominations of the 
previous coins, to allow more accurate and efficient trading. However, although this 
new coinage made long distance trade easier it was very detrimental to local trade 
which spread "hatred throughout Italy."[18] 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 not only acquired large wealth 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.[19]

Sicily's geographic situation at the centre of Mediterranean made it a brilliant location 
for 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.[20] This standing allowed for an increase in internal trade 
and a stronger market which led to noticeable developments in agriculture.[21]

Later reign[edit]

Roger had now become one of the greatest kings in Europe. At Palermo, he gathered 
round him distinguished men of various races, such as the famous Arab geographer 
Muhammad al-Idrisi and the Byzantine Greek historian Nilus Doxopatrius. The king 
welcomed the learned and practised toleration towards the several creeds, races 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.[22] He was 
served by men of diverse nationality, 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). 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, Greece, where he 
pillaged the silk factories and carried off the Jewish 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.

Roger died at Palermo on 26 February 1154 and was buried in the Cathedral of 
Palermo. He was succeeded by his fourth son, William.

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 April 30, 2001 in 
honor of this king.[23]

Family[edit]

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.[24] They had six children:
Roger (b. 1118 – d. 12 May 1148), heir, Duke of Apulia (from 1135), possibly also 
Count of Lecce;
Tancred (b. 1119 – d. 1138), Prince of Bari (from 1135).
Alfonso (b. 1120/1121 – d. 10 October 1144), Prince of Capua (from 1135) and Duke 
of Naples;
A daughter (d. young in 1135);
William (b. 1131 – d. 7 May 1166), his successor, Duke of Apulia (from 1148)[25]
Henry (b. 1135 – d. young).

Roger's second marriage was in 1149 to Sibylla, daughter of Hugh II, Duke of 
Burgundy.[26] They had two children:
Henry (b. 29 August 1149 – d. young);
Stillborn child (16 September 1150).[26]

Roger's third marriage was in 1151 to Beatrice of Rethel, a grandniece of King 
Baldwin II of Jerusalem.[26] They had one daughter:
Constance (b. posthumously, 2 November 1154 – d. 28 November 1198),[26] who 
married the Emperor Henry VI and was later Queen of Sicily.[27]

Roger also had five known illegitimate children:

—By a daughter of Hugues I, Count of Molise:
Simon, who became Prince of Taranto in 1144.[26]

—With unknown mistresses:
A daughter, wife of Rodrigo Garcés (later Henry, Count of Montescaglioso)
A daughter, wife of the neapolitan nobleman Adam;
Clenenza, married Hugues II, Count of Molise;
Adelisa (d. aft. 1184/87) married firstly Joscelin, Count of Loreto, and secondly Robert 
of Bassonville, Count of Loritello;
Marina, married the great admiral Margaritus of Brindisi.

Parents
OF SICILY Roger I (ABT 1031 - 22 Jun 1101)
DEL VASTO Adelaide (ABT 1075 - 16 Apr 1118)

Siblings
____ Roger II (Ruggero II) (22 Dec 1095 - 26 Feb 1154)

Marriage To DE RETHEL Beatrice (ABT 1130 - 30 Mar 1185)
    m. 1151 

Notes

Parents
DE RETHEL Gauthier (Ithier) (Withier) (Vuiton) (ABT 1090 - )
OF NAMUR Beatrix (ABT 1105 - 1160)

Children by DE RETHEL Beatrice ABT 1130 - 30 Mar 1185
OF SICILY Constanza (2 Nov 1154 - 27 Nov 1199)

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