Home > Roger I of Sicily

Robert now resolved to employ Roger's genius in reducing Sicily, which contained, besides the Moslems, numerous Greek Christians subject to Arab princes who had become all but independent of the sultan of Tunis. In May 1061 the brothers crossed from Reggio and captured Messina. After Palermo had been taken in January 1072 Robert Guiscard, as suzerain, invested Roger as count of Sicily, but retained Palermo, half of Messina and the north-east portion (the Val Demone). Not till 1085, however, was Roger able to undertake a systematic crusade.

In March 1086 Syracuse surrendered, and when in February 1091 Noto yielded the conquest was complete. Much of Robert's success had been due to Roger's support. Similarly the latter supported Duke Roger, his nephew, against BohemundBohemund I of Antioch (c. 1058- March 3 1111), count of Taranto and afterwards prince of Antioch, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade. Bohemund was the eldest son of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, by his first marriage to Alberada o, Capua and his rebels, and the real leadership of the Hautevilles passed to the Sicilian. count. In return for his aid against Bohemund and his rebels the duke surrendered to his uncle in 1085 his share in the castles of Calabria, and in 1091 the half of Palermo. Roger's rule in Sicily was more real than Robert Guiscard's in Italy. At the enfeoffments of 1072 and 1092 no great undivided fiefs were created, and the mixed Norman, French and Italian vassals owed their benefices to the count. No feudal revolt of importance therefore troubled Roger. Politically supreme, the count became master of the insular Church. While he gave full toleration to the Greek Churches, he created new Latin bishoprics at Syracuse and Girgenti and elsewhere, nominating the bishops personally, while he turned the archbishopric of Palermo into a CatholicGeneral meaning Catholic means universal or whole''. With respect to the Christian Church, the early Christians used the term to refer to the whole undivided church. It is in that sense that all Christians today claim ownership of the term, including Prot see.

The Papacy, favouring a prince who had recovered Sicily from Greeks and Moslems, granted to him and his heirs in 1098Events First Crusade: end of the siege of Antioch. Births Hildegard of Bingen, mystic, monastic founder, author, composer Deaths Adhemar of Le Puy, papal legate during the First Crusade Baldwin II, Count of Hainaut 1098. the Apostolic Legateship in the island. Roger practised general toleration to Arabs and Greeks, allowing to each race the expansion of its own civilization. In the cities the Moslems, who had generally secured such terms of surrender, retained their mosques, their kadis, and freedom of trade; in the country, however, they became serfs. He drew from the Moslems the mass of his infantry, and Saint AnselmSaint Anselm of Canterbury ( 1033 or 1034 April 21, 1109), a widely influential mediaeval philosopher and theologian, held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. Called the founder of Scholasticism, he is famous as the inventor of the o visiting him at the siege of Capua, 1098, found "the brown tents of the Arabs innumerable." Nevertheless the Latin element began to prevail with the Lombards and other Italians who flocked into the island in the wake of the conquest, and the conquest of Sicily was decisive in the steady decline from this time of Mahommedan power in the western Mediterranean.

Roger, the "Great Count of Sicily," died on June 22June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. Events 168 BC Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat and capture Macedonian King Perseus, ending the Third Macedonian War 1101 in his seventieth year and was buried in S. Trinità of Mileto.

He married 3 times. His first wife was Judith, daughter of William, count of Évreux (in Normandy) and Hawisa of Échauffour. His second wife was Eremberga, daughter of William, count of Mortain (also in Normandy). He last wife was Adelaide, niece of Boniface, lord of Savona.

By his first two wives he had a number of daughters, including:

• Matilda, who married Raymond of Provence
• Constance, who married Conrad, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IVHenry IV ( November 11, 1050 — 1106) was King of Germany from 1056 and Emperor from 1084, until his abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty. Henry was the eldest son of the Emperor Henry III, by his second wife Agnes de Poitou,
• Busila, who married King Coloman of HungaryColoman ( Hungarian Konyves Kalman Slovak and Croatian: Koloman ( 1070 February 3, 1116) was King of Hungary from 1095 to 1116. He was the son of Geza I of Hungary and Zsofia (Sophia). Laszlo I wanted Kalman's brother Almos to succeed him as King of Hunga
• a daughter who married Ranulf, count of Alife
• a daughter who married Ralph Maccabees, count of Montecaglioso

By his third wife he had two sons, Simon and Roger, both of whom in turn succeeded him.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.