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The Kingdom of Sicily was originally a Norman foundation. It originally coverred not only the island of Sicily itself, but also the whole Mezzogiorno. In 1282, the island of Sicily itself rebelled against the rule of its French Angevin king, Charles I and established its independence, leading to the awkward situation of two separate Kingdoms of Sicily, one on the mainland, centered on Naples, and the other on the island of Sicily itself. To distinguish the two kingdoms, the one on the mainland was informally referred to as the Kingdom of Naples, while the kingdom on the island was known as the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" (referring to the lighthouse in Reggio at the Straits of Messina, or as Trinacria. In 1816 the two Kingdoms of Sicily were reunited as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Norman kingdom
On the death of William II, Duke of Apulia, in 1127, the union of the duchy of Apulia and the county of Sicily was effected and the Count Roger II's quest for a crown began. Believing kings to have ruled Palermo in antiquity, Roger threw his support behind the Antipope Anacletus II and was duly enthroned as king of Siciy on Christmas Day 1130.
Roger spent most of the decade beginning with his coronation and ending with his great Assizes of Ariano fending off one invader or other and quelling rebellions by his premier vassals: Grimoald of Bari, Robert of Capua, Ranulf of Alife, Sergius of Naples, etc. In 1139, by the Treaty of Mignano, Roger received the recognition of his kingship from the legitimate pope. It was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa, taking the unofficial title "king of Africa."
Roger's son and successor was William the Bad, though his nickname derives primarily from his lack of popularity with the chroniclers, who supported the baronial revolts William crushed. His reign ended in peace (1166), but his son, William II, was a minor. During the boy's regency until 1172, the kingdom saw turmoil which almost brought the ruling family down, but eventually the realm settled down and the reign of the second William is remembered as two decades of almost continual peace and prosperity. For this more than anything, he is nicknamed "the Good." His death withour heirs in 1089 threw the realm into chaos, however.
Tancred of Lecce seized the throne but had to contend with the revolt of his distant cousin Roger of Andria and the invasion of Henry VI of Germany on behald of his wife, Constance, the daughter of Roger II. Constance and Henry eventually prevailed and the kingdom fell in 1194 to the Hohenstaufen. Through Constance, however, the Hauteville blood was passed to the great Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Hohenstaufen kingdom
The accession of Frederick, a child, in 1197 greatly affected the immediate future of Sicily. For a land so used to centralised royal authority, the minority caused a serious power vacuum. Philip of Swabia moved to secure his nephew's inheritance by appointing Markward von Anweiler, margrave of Ancona, regent in 1198. Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III had reasserted papal authority in Sicily, but recognised Frederick's rights. The pope was to see papal power decrease steadily over the next decade and he was very unsure about which side to back at many junctures.
The Hohenstaufen grip on power, however, was not secure. Walter III of Brienne had married the daughter of Tancred and come to the south in 1201 to claim the kingdom. In 1202, an army led by the chancellor Walter of Palearia and Dipold of Vohburg was defeated by Walter. Markward was killed and Frederick fell under the control of William of Capparone, an ally of the Pisans. Dipold continued the war against Walter on the mainland until the claimant's death in 1205. Dipold finally wrested Frederick from Capparone in 1206 and gave him over to the guardianship of the chancellor. Walter and Dipold then had a falling out and the latter captured the royal palace, where he was besieged and captured by Walter in 1207. After a decade, the wars over the regency and the throne itself had ceased.
Frederick built on the reform of the laws begun at the Assizes of Ariano in 1140 by his grandfather Roger II. His initiative in this direction was visible as early as the Assizes of Capua (1220) but came to fruition in his promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and was a source of inspiration for a long time after. It made the Kingdom of Sicily an absolutist monarchy, the first centralized state in Europe to emerge from feudalism; it also set a precedent for the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819.
During this period, he also built the Castel del Monte and in 1224 created the University of Naples: now called Università Federico II, it remained the sole atheneum of Southern Italy for centuries.
Angevin and Aragonese kingdom
Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led in 1266 to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, duke of Anjou: opposition to French officialdom and taxation led in 1282 to insurrection (the Sicilian Vespers) and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragón. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the peace of Caltabellotta in 1302. Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives of the kings of Aragon until 1409 and then as part of the Crown of Aragon.
See also
- Normans in the Mediterranean
- Kingdom of Naples
- War of the Sicilian Vespers
- List of monarchs of Naples and Sicily
Sources
- European Commission presentation of The Normans Norman Heritage, 10th-12th century.
- Houben, Hubert. Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West. Trans. G. A. Loud and Diane Milbourne. Cambridge University Press: 2002.
- Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.
- Matthew, Donald. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Cambridge University Press: 1992.
- Chaytoe, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. See chapter 7.
History of Italy | History of Sicily | Middle Ages
Regne de Sicília | Royaume de Sicile | Regno di Sicilia | シチリア王国 | Królestwo Sycylii | Kungariket Sicilien
"Kingdom of Sicily"