Roger II is crowned king of Sicily, 1130

Roger II is crowned king of Sicily

On Christmas Day 1130, in the cathedral of Palermo, Roger II, count of Sicily and from 1127 also duke of Apulia and Calabria, was crowned king. He owed the crown to Anacletus II, one of two rival popes elected that year; Innocent II recognized the kingdom only in 1139, after Roger's army had taken him prisoner. The Kingdom of Sicily, uniting the island with the Norman lands of southern Italy, lasted until 1816.

Date

25 December 1130exact dateDate in the Julian calendar

Place

Palermo (Panormus, al-Madina)today: Palermo, Sicily, Italy · Western and Central Europe

Participants

Roger II of Sicily, Kingdom of Sicily

Threads

Western and Central Europe (11th–12th c.)

Also known as

Kingdom of Sicily; Сицилийское королевство; Coronation of Roger II; Коронация Рожера II; Treaty of Mignano; Миньянский договор; Assizes of Ariano; Арианские ассизы

Roger, the son of Count Roger I, ruled Sicily from 1105 and in 1127 also became duke of Apulia and Calabria. When Pope Honorius II died in February 1130, two popes were elected, Innocent II and Anacletus II. Roger took the side of Anacletus, and on 27 September 1130 a bull of Anacletus granted him and his heirs royal power over Sicily, Apulia and Calabria, with suzerainty over Capua. A great assembly of southern Italian barons at Salerno approved, and on 25 December 1130 a legate of Anacletus anointed Roger in the cathedral of Palermo; according to the chronicler Falco of Benevento, Prince Robert II of Capua, as his chief vassal, placed the crown on his head — a report that has been doubted.

Innocent II, backed by Bernard of Clairvaux and the emperor Lothair III, refused to recognize the new kingdom, and in 1136–1137 Roger had to face a German invasion. On 22 July 1139 his son ambushed Innocent's army at Galluccio and captured the pope, who three days later, by the Treaty of Mignano, recognized Roger as king of Sicily, duke of Apulia and prince of Capua. With the Assizes of Ariano (1140) Roger set out to govern his lands as a single state. At his court in Palermo, where Greek, Arab and Latin scribes worked side by side, al-Idrisi made his map of the world, and in 1146–1148 his fleets seized coastal towns of Ifriqiya. The kingdom was merged with Naples into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies only in 1816.

Connections

Causes and preconditions

Norman conquest of SicilyMay 1061 – between 1090 and 1091 · Western and Central Europethe kingdom rested on the conquest of Sicily by Roger's father Roger I and his uncle Robert Guiscard in 1061–1091

Related events

The Norman ‘Kingdom of Africa’1146 – between 21 January and 22 January 1160 · Africathe coastal towns of Ifriqiya were taken by the fleets of Roger II, king of Sicily since 1130

Same participants

Same place

Aghlabid conquest of SicilyJune 827 – 1 August 902 · Western and Central Europe

Sicilian Vespers30 March 1282 · Western and Central Europe

Adjacent events in the thread

Roger II is crowned king of Sicily

Connections

Causes and preconditions

Related events

Same participants

Same place

Adjacent events in the thread

Meanwhile in the world

Africa

Central and Northern Asia

Southeast Asia and Oceania

North America

Latin America

The same period

Sources