General Notes

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 as count of Sicily in
1103. When his cousin Duke William of Apulia died, Roger laid claim to that
duchy; by 1129 he had compelled the Norman barons on the Italian mainland to
acknowledge him as their ruler. 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 as king by Pope Innocent II 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.