Roger II of Sicily - Background

Background

By 999, Norman adventurers had come to southern Italy. By 1016, they were involved in the complex local politics where Lombards were fighting against the Byzantine Empire. These mercenaries fought the enemies of the Italian city-states, but in the following century they gradually became the rulers of the major polities south of Rome.

At the time of the birth of his youngest son, in 1095, Roger I ruled the County of Sicily, his nephew, Roger Borsa, was the Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and his great nephew, Richard II of Capua, was the Prince of Capua.

Alongside these three major rulers were a large number of minor counts, who effectively exercised sovereign power in their own localities. These counts at least nominally owed their allegiance to one of these three Norman rulers, but such allegiance was usually weak and often ignored.

When Roger I, Count of Sicily, died in 1101, his young son, Simon of Hauteville, became Count, with his mother Adelaide del Vasto as regent. Simon died four years later in 1105, at the age of 12. Adelaide continued as regent to her younger son Roger, who was just 9 years old.