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Simon, Prince Of Taranto
Simon, bastard son of Roger II of Sicily, was declared Prince of Taranto by his father in 1148, on the death of Roger III, Duke of Apulia, the eldest legitimate son of Roger II. In 1154, Roger II died and the kingdom of Sicily passed to his fourth son, William I. William dispossessed his half-brother Simon immediately, claiming that Taranto was too important a fief to go to an illegitimate son. Simon held a grudge against the king and was called upon by Matthew Bonnellus to lead the revolt in the capital city of Palermo in 1161. This Simon did, with his nephew, Tancred of Lecce, the bastard son of Roger of Apulia, on 9 March. Simon and Tancred invaded the palace, detained King William, Queen Margaret, and their two sons, and incited a massacre of Muslims. Originally, the older of the king's sons, Roger IV, Duke of Apulia, was destined to be crowned in place of William, but soon the populace supported the accession of Simon himself. Before Simon could put himself forward as a cand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger II Of Sicily
Roger II ( it, Ruggero II; 22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154) was King of Sicily and Africa, 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, then King of Sicily in 1130 and King of Africa in 1148. 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 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 M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger IV, Duke Of Apulia
Roger IV (1152–1161) was the eldest son of William I of Sicily and Margaret of Navarre. Twice in his short life he was the object of the barons' intent to replace his father as king. When he was made the duke of Apulia is unknown, probably after his father's assumption of power in 1154. In 1156, barons opposed to Maio of Bari began to consider removing not only the emir, but also the king, and putting Roger on the throne. While a minor, the barons would be free from meaningful royal control. In 1161, after the successful assassination of Maio, the rebels paraded Roger through the streets, announcing his succession and heralding his coming coronation in the Cathedral of Palermo. However, the populace instead supported the succession claims of Simon, erstwhile Prince of Taranto, the king's illegitimate half-brother. The people rebelled and the palace was stormed. In the ensuing battle, young Roger was killed, by a wayward arrow to the eye. An alternative theory, advanced by Wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hauteville Family
The Hauteville ( it, Altavilla) was a Norman family originally of seigneurial rank from the Cotentin. The Hautevilles rose to prominence through their part in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. By 1130, one of their members, Roger II, was made the first King of Sicily. His male-line descendants ruled Sicily until 1194. Some Italian Hautevilles took part in the First Crusade and the founding of the Principality of Antioch (1098). Origins The traditional account of the family's origin traces them back to Hiallt, a 10th-century Norseman who settled in the Cotentin Peninsula and founded the estate of ''Hialtus villa'', giving rise in corrupted form to the family toponymic ''Hauteville''. The name represents the Scandinavian ''Hjalti'' or ''Hialti''), but may instead have resulted from confusion with the ''Helt s' found in ''Heltvilla'', modern Héauville.''Les Noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de la Manche'', A. et J. Picard, préface Yves Nédélec, 1986, , oclc=15314425 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princes Of Taranto
The Principality of Taranto was a state in southern Italy created in 1088 for Bohemond I, eldest son of Robert Guiscard, as part of the peace between him and his younger brother Roger Borsa after a dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Apulia. Taranto became the capital of the principality, which covered almost all of the heel of Apulia. During its subsequent 377 years of history, it was sometimes a powerful and almost independent feudal fief of the Kingdom of Sicily (and later of Naples), sometimes only a title, often given to the heir to the crown or to the husband of a reigning queen. When the House of Anjou was divided, Taranto fell to the house of Durazzo (1394–1463). Ferdinand I of Naples united the Principality of Taranto to the Kingdom of Naples at the death of his wife, Isabella of Clermont. The principality came to an end, but the kings of Naples continued giving the title of Prince of Taranto to their sons, firstly to the future Alfonso II of Naples, eld ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italo-Normans
The Italo-Normans ( it, Italo-Normanni), or Siculo-Normans (''Siculo-Normanni'') when referring to Sicily and Southern Italy, are the Italian-born descendants of the first Norman conquerors to travel to southern Italy in the first half of the eleventh century. While maintaining much of their distinctly Norman piety and customs of war, they were shaped by the diversity of southern Italy, by the cultures and customs of the Greeks, Lombards, and Arabs in Sicily. History Normans first arrived in Italy as pilgrims, probably on their way to or returning from either Rome or Jerusalem, or from visiting the shrine at Monte Gargano, during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. In 1017, the Lombard lords in Apulia recruited their assistance against the dwindling power of the Byzantine Catapanate of Italy. They soon established vassal states of their own and began to expand their conquests until they were encroaching on the Lombard principalities of Benevento and Capua, Sar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality. Background Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing Home on Portland Place in Marylebone, London, on 15 September 1929. He was the son of Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, later Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Manners, a celebrated beauty and society figure. He was given the name "Julius" in part because he was born by caesarean section. Such was his mother's fame as an actress and beauty that the birth attracted a crowd outside the nursing home and hundreds of letters of congratulations. Through his father, he was descended from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. He was educated at Egerton House School in Dorset Square, London, later becoming a boarder at the school when it was evacuated to Northamptonshire before the outbreak of the Second World W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry, Count Of Montescaglioso
Henry (before 1144–1173×77), born Rodrigo according to Hugo Falcandus, was an alleged son of the Navarrese king García Ramírez and his wife, Margaret of L'Aigle, and brother of the Sicilian queen dowager Margaret, who made him Count of Montescaglioso (1166) and then Count of the Principate (1168). Arrival in Sicily (1166) The main primary source for Henry's life is the Sicilian court chronicler known as Hugo Falcandus. He is an extremely unfriendly source to Henry. He reports the rumour that Henry was never acknowledged as a son by the Navarrese king and was considered a bastard, the product of one of the queen's affairs.Hubert Houben, "Enrico di Navarra", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani', Vol. 42 (1993). This is contradicted by the actions of his sister, who always treated him as a full brother of royal blood.John Julius Norwich, ''The Kingdom in the Sun, 1130–1194'' (London: Longmans, 1970). Henry's birth name, also, is evidence of legitimacy, for he was probabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William II Of Sicily
William II (December 115311 November 1189), called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. From surviving sources William's character is indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy. Champion of the papacy and in secret league with the Lombard cities, he was able to defy the common enemy, Frederick Barbarossa. In the ''Divine Comedy'', Dante places William II in Paradise. He is also referred to in Boccaccio's '' Decameron'' (tale IV.4, where he reportedly has two children, and tale V.7). William was nicknamed "the Good" only in the decades following his death. It is due less to his character than to the cessation of the internal troubles that plagued his father's reign and the wars that erupted under his successor. Under the Staufer dynasty his reign was characterised as a golden age of peace and justice. His num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Of Navarre
Margaret of Navarre (french: Marguerite, es, Margarita, it, Margherita) (c. 1135 – 12 August 1183) was Queen of Sicily as the wife of William I (1154–1166) and the regent during the minority of her son, William II. Queen consort Margaret was the daughter of King García Ramírez of Navarre and Marguerite de l'Aigle. She was married at a young age to William I of Sicily, in 1149, the fourth son of Roger II of Sicily. According to the Palermitan archivist Isidoro La Lumia, she was, in her later years, ''bella ancora, superba, leggiera'' ("still beautiful, proud, light"). During the reign of her husband, Margaret was largely ignored by William who spent much of his time away from court - often frequenting his many personal harems. However, she is considered to have been a stronger, more apt administrator than her husband, and several times convinced him to act where he was determined to be passive. She worked closely with Maio of Bari, the king's '' ammiratus ammiratorum'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Of Taranto
The Principality of Taranto was a state in southern Italy created in 1088 for Bohemond I, eldest son of Robert Guiscard, as part of the peace between him and his younger brother Roger Borsa after a dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Apulia. Taranto became the capital of the principality, which covered almost all of the heel of Apulia. During its subsequent 377 years of history, it was sometimes a powerful and almost independent feudal fief of the Kingdom of Sicily (and later of Naples), sometimes only a title, often given to the heir to the crown or to the husband of a reigning queen. When the House of Anjou was divided, Taranto fell to the house of Durazzo (1394–1463). Ferdinand I of Naples united the Principality of Taranto to the Kingdom of Naples at the death of his wife, Isabella of Clermont. The principality came to an end, but the kings of Naples continued giving the title of Prince of Taranto to their sons, firstly to the future Alfonso II of Naples, el ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tancred Of Lecce
Tancred ( it, Tancredi; 113820 February 1194) was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia (the eldest son of King Roger II) by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce. He inherited the title "Count of Lecce" from his grandfather and is consequently often referred to as Tancred of Lecce. Due to his short stature and unhandsome visage, he was mocked by his critics as "The Monkey King". Early career After the death of Duke Roger, to prevent any future trouble, King Roger II kept Tancred and his younger brother William in close custody in Palermo. On 9 March 1161, Tancred joined his uncle Simon, Prince of Taranto, in invading the palace, detained the king and queen, William I and Margaret, and their two sons, and incited a massacre of Muslims. Originally, the older of these two sons, Roger IV, Duke of Apulia, was destined to be crowned in place of William, but soon the populace supported the acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as ("flower"). Palermo then became a possession of Carthage. Two Greek colonies were established, known collectively as ; the Carthaginians used this name on their coins after the 5th centuryBC. As , the town became part of the Roman Republic and Empire for over a thousand years. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule in the Emirate of Sicily when the city became the capital of Sicily for the first time. During this time the city was known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
