General Notes

Note: Roger II (1095-1154), first king of Sicily (1130-54), who created a state in which Arabs, Greeks, Italians, and Jews lived together in peace and in which the arts and letters flourished.The second son of Roger I, the Norman conqueror of Sicily, Roger succeeded his brother Simon (died 1105) as count of Sicily in1103. When his cousin Duke William of Apulia died in 1127, Roger laid claim to that duchy; by 1129 he had compelled the Norman barons on the Italian mainland to acknowledge him as theirruler. In 1130 he adopted the title of king of Sicily, with sovereignty also over the southern Italian regions of Apulia, Calabria, Capua, and Naples, establishing a monarchy that survived for more than seven centuries. He was recognized asking by Pope Innocent II (r. 1130-43) in 1139. Roger made his court at Palermo one of Europe's foremost cultural centers, and he erected throughout Sicily numerous buildings that were a striking blend of Norman, Arabic and Byzantine architectural styles.