Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West

Journal of Church and State, Wntr, 2004 by J.S. Hamilton

Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West. By Hubert Houben. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 231 pp. n.p.

Roger II of Sicily is well known as the founder of the Norman kingdom of Sicily in the twelfth century. Nevertheless, he has been, almost since his own time, a controversial figure as well. His frequently independent line in dealings with the papacy as well as his receptiveness to Arab culture has made him more attractive to modern students than he was to contemporaries. Hubert Houben has spent a long career at the Universita degli Studi di Lecce in southern Italy, and this book reflects his profound knowledge of the primary source material as well as the secondary literature on the Norman kingdom in general and Roger's reign in particular.

Houben begins by discussing the career of Roger's father, Roger I, the Norman conqueror who established himself as a count of Sicily in the late eleventh century, and was one of the many sons of Tancred of Hauteville. His brothers included Robert Giuscard--subject of a recent study by G.A. Loud--who himself became duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. Like the Normans in England, Roger I consolidated his hold over Sicily through the building of castles. In dealing with the church, he was successful in obtaining an apostolic legation from Urban II, allowing him and his heirs to construct a national church in Sicily. Despite the strenuous objections of future popes, issues of church and state would remain closely intertwined in Norman Sicily ever after.

When Roger I died in 1101, his twenty-six-year-old widow, Adelaide, served as a regent for the young Roger II. During her regency, she moved the Norman capital from Messina to Palermo. Roger II came of age in 1112. Five years later he married Elvira, daughter of Alfonso VI, king of Castile and Leon. Roger consciously posed as protector of the Christian Mediterranean by challenging the naval strength of the North African Hammadids. In this, he was assisted by his admiral Christodoulos, but also by the Syrian Christian George of Antioch. The Christianity he initially fostered was Greek rather than Latin, a fact that strained his relations with the papacy. It was nevertheless the anti-pope Anacletus II who elevated his status from count to king, needing the Sicilian's support against his rival, Innocent II. Although Innocent II was endorsed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux and ultimately recognized as the legitimate pope, Roger was able to weather the storm. Excommunicated by Innocent in April 1139, in July Roger took the pope himself prisoner at the battle of San Germano, following which Innocent was forced to recognize Roger's right to the throne, although he did thereby become a direct vassal of the papacy. Ten years later, Roger was able to present his overlord with a rich prize as an archbishop of Africa (Mahdia) was installed thanks to Roger's liberation of the north African coast. This Christian foothold in Muslim north Africa would not long outlive Roger himself, but it emphasizes the crusading spirit of the age and Roger's engagement in a multicultural sphere of military, diplomatic, and cultural interactions.

Another important aspect of the reign of Roger II is the sponsorship of cultural pursuits for which Sicily would become famous in the medieval world. Not only were Greek works brought from Constantinople, but they were beginning to be translated into Latin. Examples include the Meno and the Phaedo of Plato, translated by an archdeacon of Catania. But equally significant, Roger was interested in Arabic culture. He commissioned the famous scholar al-Idrisi to write a description of the world and to draw an accompanying map, and several other Arab poets were at work at his court. Still, even in Arabic inscriptions in Palermo and elsewhere, he stresses his identity as a Christian and defender of the pope. Roger was also a giver of laws, and many of his ordinances were preserved in the more famous Constitutions of Melfi of Frederick II. It has been argued that the use of Justinianic Roman law at his court precedes that development at Bologna, where it is usually said to have germinated. His laws include such enlightened precepts as the immunity of children and the mentally incompetent from persecution, and the examination of physicians by a state board. And these laws were administered by civil servants quite distinct from the traditional feudal aristocracy of medieval Europe.

Roger II died in February 1158 and was succeeded by his son William I. He left behind a full treasury, several magnificent palaces, an efficient administration, and a multicultural state unlike any other in Europe. This short review does not do justice to the depth and substance of Houben's examination of this fascinating man and kingdom, which is at once learned, argumentative, and readable. No small achievement.

J.S. HAMILTON

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

WACO, TEXAS