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The Kingdom of Sicily (Latin: Regnum Siciliae or Sicilie; Italian: Regno di Sicilia, commonly abbreviated Regno) was a state that existed in modern-day Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. The Kingdom of Sicily covered not only the island of Sicily itself, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of southern Italy and, until 1530, the islands of Malta and Gozo. It was sometimes called the regnum Apuliae et Siciliae until 1282, when the mainland separated from the island being known as Kingdom of Naples from then on. After 1302 it was sometimes called the Kingdom of Trinacria. Often the kingship was vested in another monarch such as the King of Aragon, the King of Spain or the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1816 the Kingdom of Sicily merged with Kingdom of Naples into the newly created Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
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Norman kingdom
On the death of William II, Duke of Apulia, in 1127, the Duchy of Apulia and the County of Sicily were united under the rule of Roger II of Sicily, one of the greatest kings of the Middle Ages. Believing that kings had ruled Palermo in antiquity, Roger threw his support behind the Antipope Anacletus II and was duly enthroned as King of Sicily on Christmas Day 1130. Roger spent most of the decade beginning with his coronation and ending with his great Assizes of Ariano fending off one invader or other and quelling rebellions by his premier vassals: Grimoald of Bari, Robert of Capua, Ranulf of Alife, Sergius of Naples and others. In 1139, the Treaty of Mignano granted Roger recognition of his kingship from the legitimate pope. It was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa (Ifriqiya), taking the unofficial title "King of Africa." At the same time Roger's powerful fleet attacked the Byzantine Empire and made Sicily the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean Sea for almost a century. Roger's son and successor was William the Bad, though his nickname derives primarily from his lack of popularity with the chroniclers, who supported the baronial revolts William crushed. His reign ended in peace (1166), but his son, William II, was a minor. Until the end of the boy's regency in 1172, the kingdom saw turmoil which almost brought the ruling family down, although the reign of the second William is remembered as two decades of almost continual peace and prosperity. For this more than anything, he is nicknamed "the Good." However, his death without heirs in 1189 threw the realm into chaos. Tancred of Lecce seized the throne but had to contend with the revolt of his distant cousin Roger of Andria and the invasion of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor on behalf of his wife, Constance, the daughter of Roger II. Constance and Henry eventually prevailed and the kingdom fell in 1194 to the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Through Constance, however, the Hauteville blood was passed to the great Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Hohenstaufen kingdom
The accession of Frederick, a child who would then become also the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, in 1197 greatly affected the immediate future of Sicily. For a land so used to centralised royal authority, the king's young age caused a serious power vacuum. His uncle Philip of Swabia moved to secure Frederick's inheritance by appointing Markward von Anweiler, margrave of Ancona, regent in 1198. Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III had reasserted papal authority in Sicily, but recognised Frederick's rights. The pope was to see papal power decrease steadily over the next decade and was unsure about which side to back at many junctures. The Hohenstaufen grip on power, however, was not secure. Walter III of Brienne had married the daughter of Tancred and come to the south in 1201 to claim the kingdom. In 1202, an army led by the chancellor Walter of Palearia and Dipold of Vohburg was defeated by Walter. Markward was killed and Frederick fell under the control of William of Capparone, an ally of the Pisans. Dipold continued the war against Walter on the mainland until the claimant's death in 1205. Dipold finally wrested Frederick from Capparone in 1206 and gave him over to the guardianship of the chancellor, Walter of Palearia. Walter and Dipold then had a falling out and the latter captured the royal palace, where he was besieged and captured by Walter in 1207. After a decade, the wars over the regency and the throne itself had ceased. Frederick built on the reform of the laws begun at the Assizes of Ariano in 1140 by his grandfather Roger II. His initiative in this direction was visible as early as the Assizes of Capua (1220) but came to fruition in his promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and was a source of inspiration for a long time after. It made the Kingdom of Sicily an absolutist monarchy, the first centralized state in Europe to emerge from feudalism; it also set a precedent for the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. During this period, he also built the Castel del Monte and in 1224 created the University of Naples: now called Università Federico II, it remained the sole athenaeum of Southern Italy for centuries. Frederick II's heir in Sicily was his illegitimate son Manfred, who ruled the kingdom for fifteen years while other Hohenstaufen heirs were busy in Germany. The Hohenstaufen rule in Sicily ended after the 1266 Angevin invasion and the death of Conradin, the last male Hohenstaufen, in 1268.
Angevin and Aragonese kingdoms
Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led in 1266 to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke of Anjou. Opposition to French officialdom and taxation led in 1282 to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302. The Peace divided the old Kingdom of Sicily in two. The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III, who had been ruling it, and the peninsular territories (the Mezzogiorno), contemporaneously called Kingdom of Sicily but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II, who had been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo. Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives of the kings of Aragon until 1409 and thence as part of the Crown of Aragon. The Kingdom of Naples was ruled by Angevins until the two thrones were forcibly reunited by Alfonso V of Aragon, whose siege of Naples ended in triumph February 26, 1443. However, Alfonso divided them after his rule. He passed Naples to his son Ferdinand I of Naples, who ruled from 1458 to 1494, and Aragon and Sicily to Alfonso's brother John II of Aragon. From 1494 to 1503 successive kings of France Charles VIII and Louis XII, who were heirs of Angevins, tried the conquest of Naples (see Italian Wars) but failed, so the Kingdom was definitely reunited to Aragon. The titles were held by the Aragonese kings until 1516, followed by the Kings of Spain until 1707. The Holy Roman Emperors held the titles from 1707 until 1735, when Naples was attacked by Duke Charles of Parma, who became Charles VII of Naples and Sicily. His descendants ruled until the unification of Italy in 1861. From 1816 to 1861 the kingdoms were united under the name Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Malta under the Knights
In 1530, in an effort to protect Rome from Ottoman invasion from the south, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as Charles V of Aragon, gave the Islands of Malta and Gozo to the Knights Hospitaller in perpetual fiefdom, in exchange for an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon, which they were to send on All Souls' Day to the Viceroy of Sicily. The Maltese Islands had formed part of the Duchy, and later the Kingdom of Sicily, since 1127. The feudal relationship between Malta and the Kingdom of Sicily continued in form throughout the rule of the Knights, until they were evicted from Malta by Napoleon, in 1798.
See also
- Emirate of Sicily
- Norman conquest of southern Italy
- Kingdom of Naples
- War of the Sicilian Vespers
- List of monarchs of Naples and Sicily
- Ottoman-Habsburg wars
- Two Sicilies
Sources
- European Commission presentation of The Normans Norman Heritage, 10th-12th century.
- Houben, Hubert. Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West. Trans. G. A. Loud and Diane Milbourne. Cambridge University Press: 2002.
- Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.
- Matthew, Donald. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Cambridge University Press: 1992.
- Chaytoe, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. See chapter 7.
