The Baptized Sultans: An Independent Sicily TL

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The Baptized Sultans




“The enemies of Sicily called our kings baptized sultans. We in turn baptized them in blood.” -Simon the Saracen


Prologue and Background Part 1: Normans in Italy:


The fate of dynasties, and the nations that birth them, can often turn on a single event, an unlucky death, or a miraculous victory. These events shape history in often the most unexpected of ways. So it was with the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. We’ll explore a divergence from one of those unlucky events in this TL. Specifically, we’ll explore the survival of all of King Roger II’s sons past him, rather than the survival of one lethargic and unprepared son. But first, some background on the Normans in Sicily.

According to legend, the Normans first arrived in substantial numbers in Sicily in 1016, when Norman pilgrim knights visited the shrine to Saint Michael the Archangel at Monte Gargano. According to the story, the Lombard patriot Melus gave a dramatic speech convincing the pilgrims to send for more soldiers to help throw off the Byzantine yoke in Southern Italy. However, a greater motivation may have been gold and land for second and third sons, as Norman tradition mandated that a father’s lands and money be divided equally among his sons, but allowed the eldest to pick first, often leading to the younger sons getting nothing. This led to a large amount of idle, landless knights and other warriors that caused a great deal of trouble in Normandy.

So when Melus called for soldiers to fight the Greek Byzantines, many Normans answered the call, including brothers from the family of Drengot, who will become important in a few years. The Normans and Lombards fought the Byzantines in several engagements, which were indecisive, but less of a defeat than the Lombards alone had experienced. At the Battle of Cannae in 1018, the elite Varangian Guard engaged the allied forces, and utterly smashed the Lombards and Normans, sending Melus fleeing into the Papal States and eventually the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, where he died a broken man. The Normans lost a tenth of their forces as well as their captain, and promptly elected Ranulf Drengot as their commander.

With the revolt temporarily crushed, the Normans drifted around and served as mercenaries to anyone who would pay them, including Lombard princes under Byzantine rule. Eventually they helped Sergius IV, Prince of Naples to regain his throne and gained the County of Aversa for their trouble. Eventually, Ranulf Drengot sent for reinforcements from Normandy, and the many sons of Tancred of Hautville answered the call.

Throughout the next three decades, the Normans fought against Lombards and Byzantines, until the ever-present Lombard rebellion became more of a Norman one, and they seized much of Southern Italy from their would-be allies. The Hautville brothers William Iron-Arm, Drogo, and Humphrey were elected as captains of the Normans, until finally their younger brother Robert Guiscard was elected captain and count in 1057. Of note is that the Normans became as hated by the Lombards as the Greeks once were, the Pope even called for an army to oust the Normans from Italy!

With momentum and a charismatic and cunning leader on their side however, the Normans were not ousted. Indeed, the new reforming Pope, at odds with the Holy Roman Emperor, declared Robert Guiscard “by the Grace of God and St Peter duke of Apulia and Calabria and, if either aid me, future lord of Sicily”. Regardless, over the next two decades, the Normans seized Calabria from the Byzantines, and in 1071, ousted the Byzantines from their last stronghold in southern Italy.

Guiscard’s adventures to conquer Sicily and even the entire Byzantine Empire were much less successful, and he died in 1085 at the age of seventy, seeking again to conquer Constantinople. At his death, the entire Norman domain was divided between his lackluster legitimate son Roger Borsa, his illegitimate, but skilled son Bohemond, and his youngest brother Roger.

Roger, who gradually conquered Sicily and Malta, managed to play off his nephews against each other, protecting Borsa from the ambitions of Bohemond, and in turn demanding more and more of Borsa’s inheritance for his own son. Eventually, Bohemond left Sicily for the First Crusade, and founded the Principality of Antioch in the Levant.

Roger, now Count Roger of Sicily, continued to gradually extend his power over the rest of the Normans, and eventually fathered two legitimate sons, Roger and Simon. He then promptly died at the age of seventy in 1101, much like his brother Guiscard. He left his domains to his son Simon, but Simon died at a young age in 1105, leaving his domains to his brother, who would be known as Roger II, a man who would shatter the political landscape of Italy forever.
 
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Zioneer

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"The whims of fate tormented my father on some occasions, and glorified him on others."- Roger III of Sicily

Prologue and Background Part 2: Roger II, the Baptized Sultan.


Roger II became Count of Sicily after his brother Simon’s death, at the tender age of nine. His mother Adelaide del Vasto served as regent, and throughout his childhood, young Roger was brought up among a cosmopolitan court, Greeks, Arabs, and Lombards serving as magistrates and advisors. He received great honors, including the Byzantine title of protonobilissimos, and in 1110, the Norwegian crusader king Sigurd visited the young count on the way to the Holy Land to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1112, at the age of sixteen, Roger obtained his majority and thus adulthood.

His mother, widowed since his father’s death, married the childless King Baldwin of Jerusalem on the condition that Roger inherit Jerusalem if no children came from her marriage to Baldwin. However, Baldwin was still married to a previous wife that he had sent to a convent, and the marriage was soon annulled by the Pope, leading to ill treatment by the Jerusalemites. Adelaide returned to Sicily in 1117 and died a year later, her ill treatment causing Roger to never forgive the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He would refuse to help the Kingdom for the rest of his life.
Throughout the next few years, Roger fathered several bastard children, and soon married Elvira of Castille, daughter of King Alfonso VI. Elvira gave him four sons, Roger (b. 1118), Tancred (b. 1119), Alfonso (b. 1121, named after Elvira’s father), William (b. 1131), and a child named Henry, who died extremely young.

In his early years as Count, Roger also appointed a master of ships, Christodulous, an Orthodox Greek or Arabic convert to Orthodoxy who was given the title of “emir”, which Roger’s Catholic advisors Latinized to “admiratus”, a title which later became known as “admiral”. Christodulous built Sicily’s navy to a tremendous size, and could be considered one of Europe’s first admirals. However, Christodulous failed in conquering the city of Mahdia on the North African coast, and was overshadowed in the Sicilian court by his protégé George of Antioch, who would prove very useful in the years to come.

In 1122, Roger intervened in a rebellion between William II of Apulia, son of Roger Borsa, and Count Jordan of Ariano. William was just as weak as his father, and pleaded for help from Count Roger. The Sicilian count provided William with 600 armored knights and a great deal of monetary assistance, provided William surrender his claims to Sicily and hand over a portion of Calabria. The rebellion was soon crushed, and in 1127, the lackluster William died childless, extinguishing the legitimate line of Robert Guiscard and leaving his entire domain to his powerful cousin Roger. The domains of the Normans in Southern Italy were finally united in one person, the ambitious and powerful Roger II.

Naturally, to any enemies of the Normans, this was unacceptable. Pope Honorius II feared the tendency of the unruly and bloodthirsty Normans to interfere in religious matters, the Byzantine Emperor John II hated the Normans for their frequent plundering of the rich Greek lands, and the German King (and would-be Holy Roman Emperor) Lothair III desired to bring all of Italy under his control. This was, of course, in addition to the unruly Norman barons themselves, who liked the lenient William and were wary of Roger’s desire for more control.

The proactive Pope Honorius encouraged and led two separate baronial rebellions against Roger, but was defeated both times, and was forced to invest Roger as Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, Count of Capua, and all of the titles he had inherited from Duke William. The barons were forced to renew their oaths of loyalty, and Roger gave the legal system of his combined realm teeth; no longer would the barons be above the law, and no longer would they be allowed to wage war against each other. There would be peace in the land, or so Roger hoped. But like any good Norman, Roger dreamed of even greater ambitions…

An opportunity presented itself when Pope Honorius II died in February of 1130. The papal chancellor Hameric led a group of eight reformist cardinals to elect Cardinal Gregory Papareschi as Pope innocent II. However, the larger body of cardinals argued that this was an illegitimate election, and elected the popular and obscenely rich Cardinal Pietro Pierleoni, who was also ethnically Jewish, though his family had been Christian for several generations. Pierleoni was elected as Pope Anacletus II, causing a schism within the Catholic Church. The supporters of each Pope battled each other on the streets of Rome, and Innocent and his supporters were driven from Rome.

Innocent fled to the north, where he was warmly received by the great reforming abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, who supported the reformist cardinals. The charismatic Bernard whipped the kings of Europe into a fury against Anacletus, and soon all the major Catholic rulers declared their support of Innocent, and Anacletus was soon in a panic, having gained Rome, but lost all of Europe. Only one ruler had stayed neutral in this conflict, one Duke Roger of Sicily, and he had a particular price: a royal crown. He would support Anacletus in exchange for being made king.

With no other choice, Anacletus agreed, and on Christmas Day 1130, in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, Duke Roger became King Roger, lord of Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, and all the rest of the Norman possessions. The wealth of Sicily was displayed outrageously in a massive feast and celebration, one commentator noted that the servants and cooks wore finer silks than some of the dignitaries.

This enraged the enemies of Roger even more than the prospect of a Duke Roger had, and in 1131, Bernard of Clairvaux soon organized a coalition of rulers to oust “this half-heathen king, this baptized sultan”. In early 1132, King Lothair answered the call, but with only a small army, not even enough to conquer Rome. Lothair managed to install Innocent within the Lateran Palace, and was in turn crowned Holy Roman Emperor, with Anacletus’s supporters jeering at him by St. Peter’s Basilica across the way.

On the way south towards the bottom of the Italian peninsula, Lothair’s army was augmented by the rebel barons of Sicily, many of whom had fought Roger on behalf of the deceased Pope Honorius a few years before. An even more fortunate circumstance had occurred a scant few weeks before, when the rebel barons had fought Roger at the Battle of Nocera; in a rare miscalculation, Roger himself had led his forces. The new Sicilian king was not the best of battlefield commanders, and the Sicilian force was crushed, Roger only escaping with four knights. Victory seemed assured for Innocent, Emperor Lothair, and the barons.

However, as he rebuilt his army, Roger refused to meet Lothair in battle. And as the weeks and months dragged on in the blistering Sicilian heat, with no battle or loot to encourage them, the German nobles accompanying the new Emperor demanded that they return to Germany, having fulfilled their feudal obligation. Additionally, the Hohenstaufen Dukes of Swabia were intriguing in the north. The wary Emperor had gotten his imperial crown and wished to impose his authority in his northern lands, and so the German army returned to the north in late 1133.

With the departure of the Germans and some timely squabbling of the barons, Roger’s fortunes had reversed; he, with a rebuilt army, was now the master of the war. Brooking no defiance, Roger smashed the rebel forces to pieces, and hung several barons as an example to the rest. By 1134, Roger ousted the last remaining Lombard princes from their domains, which had originally submitted to the Normans several decades ago. He installed his second son Tancred as Prince of Bari, his third son Alfonso as Prince of Capua, and his eldest son Roger as Duke of Apulia. He seemed poised to reclaim the rest of the kingdom, but yet again, a stroke of luck reversed the tides. A plague swept through his forces, killing many soldiers and his beloved Queen Elvira.The distraught Roger locked himself in a tower, and the rumor went that he was dead as well. The rebel forces, aided by Pisan galleys, struck again and captured several towns, but a vengeful Roger came forth in the summer of 1134 and reconquered most of what he had lost in the plague.

Meanwhile, Bernard of Clairvaux was not pleased with Emperor Lothair, as the half-heathen king was still on his throne in Palermo, and the false pope Anacletus II was still in Rome. In 1137, Bernard persuaded Lothair to lead another expedition to Sicily, this time in force.

This time, all of Sicily’s enemies were united against her. The Byzantine Emperor John II sent subsidies to Lothair, Pope Innocent II excommunicated Roger and all his soldiers (which had little effect as much of Roger’s army was Muslim), Venice furnished a fleet, and Roger’s four sons even fell sick, though soon regained their health[1].

Yet again, however, fortune turned again and again. The German nobles grew sick with malaria, and grew sick of the arrogant papal delegation accompanying them, and demanded that they be released from their obligations. Forced for the second time to leave on the eve of triumph, Lothair’s army marched north once more, and tragedy struck the German camp as Lothair fell sick and died in December 1137 crossing the Alps. In early 1138, Roger’s pet pope Anacletus II followed Lothair in death, and Roger was without a pope to continue the conflict. He hastily attempted to make peace with the now fully legitimate Pope Innocent II, but Innocent was not amused. Were it not for Roger’s interference, he would have been the legitimate pope for nearly a decade.

Deciding that no one else could be trusted to overthrow Roger, Innocent himself commanded the armies of the rebel barons. This proved to be a poor strategic decision, as Roger crushed the rebel barons one last time in the summer of 1139 and captured the pope, several cardinals, and the papal legates. Treated well despite his hostility and capture, Innocent was forced to acknowledge and invest Roger as rightful King of Sicily. Of amusement is his final revenge at Roger’s (second) coronation; at it, he preached a sermon of enormous length as the Sicilian sun shone down on Roger in his heavy coronation robes.[2]

Roger, finally secure in his throne after a decade of rebellion, instituted a constitution for Sicily, known as the Assizes of Ariano. The Assizes, based upon Byzantine laws, touched nearly every aspect of Sicilian life, and bound the various regions together. Anything from church law to knighthood, to property was influenced by the Assizes.

In the remainder of his rule, Roger promoted the arts and science, in one notable tale having the shipmasters of Palermo interrogate the whereabouts of every single visitor to Palermo, and constructing an eerily accurate silver globe based on the answers. He promoted Greek, Norman, Arab, and Italian men to the administration of his realm, acting more on meritocracy than on ancestry.

Lastly, Roger had his admiral George of Antioch avenge his decades-old defeat at the hands of Mahdia, conquering not only the city, but much of the Tunisian coast, including Tunis itself. With that victory, Roger declared a Kingdom of Ifriqya, or Africa. He also raided Greece, and supposedly carried away silkworms and the monks that harvested them, creating Sicily’s silk industry.Roger finally passed away in 1154, survived by his eldest legitimate son Roger, his sons Tancred, Alfonso, and William, and a host of illegitimate children, including a favored bastard son named Simon, Prince of Taranto.

Roger was buried in the Cathedral of Palermo built during his reign, with the inscriptionthe Apulian, the Calabrian, the Sicilian, and the African all obey my will”, a boast which rang true to many. But here ends our prologue, for in real life, Roger was succeeded by the lethargic and uncreative William I, which eventually led to the end of an independent Sicily forever. Our story truly begins when the three more formidable sons of Roger succeed their legendary father.

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[1] The PoD: In OTL Roger II's sons died at different times, of unknown causes. Here, I'm having them all fall sick at the same time, and gain immunity to whatever disease might have killed them. They can die of other diseases and age and war, but are healthy enough to outlive their father. Otherwise, everything is unchanged from OTL.

[2] Seriously, that actually happened. Innocent was forced to invest Roger as King, but preached an extremely long sermon to troll Roger.
 
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Zioneer

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A map from Hillfighter on DeviantArt, detailing the geopolitical divisions present at Roger II's death.

the_kingdom_of_sicily_by_hillfighter-d384qmz.png
 
I like this a lot so far, when I heard the title I could only assume either one of the last Aghlabid Emirs converted to Christianity or Roger converted to Islam, but I'm liking this Norman Sicily Wank. Also I like how the Sicilian version of "La Convincencia" will continue as a phenomenon :D.
 
The Pierleonist party actually did have a pope after Anacletus II; his name was Gregorio Conti, a.k.a. Victor IV (not the same as the other antipope Victor IV who was Barbarossa's puppet later on), and he reigned for about two months before realizing the jig was up and submitting to Innocent.

But I could see why Roger would rather try and reconcile, and if you keep the schism going then you don't get Innocent's passive-aggressive coronation scene. :D

I guess we can safely assume that the Byzantine invasion the year after Roger's death, assuming it happens at all ITTL, is going to be handily crushed.
 

Zioneer

Banned
Chapter 1: The Five Brothers of Sicily


The Brothers

Upon the death of Roger II in February 24, 1154, he was survived by five sons, four legitimate, and one illegitimate.

Eldest was the 36 year old Duke Roger of Apulia, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Rigano in 1137, where he stood bravely in a fight that his father had fled. He was his father’s official heir, and was the obvious choice for next king. He was married to Isabella of Champagne, but like his father, had many mistresses, the most prominent of which was Emma, daughter of the Sicilian Count of Lecce. Emma gave him two illegitimate sons, Tancred[1] and William. Tancred was his father’s favorite, and had inherited the title of Count of Lecce. Duke Roger was known for bravery and skill in military affairs, but with little interest in culture. Roger had no legitimate children by the time of his father’s death.Second was the 35 year old Prince Tancred of Bari, who was known for his sympathy towards his Greek subjects. [2] Tancred of Bari was the intellectual of the brothers, constantly fascinated by science and the arts. In his father’s later years, the Prince of Bari would act as a patron for travelers and monks to make use of their learning. Tancred was unmarried at the time of his father’s passing.


Third was the 34 year old Alfonso, Prince of Capua and later Duke of Naples. Alfonso was a man devoted to two things; war and administration[3]. He had been made Prince of Capua while still in his minority, and his regents had impressed upon him the importance of ruling effectively, especially in his principality, with its notoriously independent-minded lords. In his father’s later years, Alfonso reorganized his principality and duchy into more centralized domains with royal permission, and squeezed much wealth out of it. In the 1140s, Alfonso fought against Pope Lucius II, who demanded the restitution of Capua as a papal fief. In response, Alfonso plundered and seized papal land, before being forced to give back his conquests by a treaty between his father and Pope Lucius. The year before his father’s death Alfonso was married to Sophia of Hungary, daughter of the late King Bela II of Hungary.[4]

Fourth was the 23 year old William, Count of Malta[5] and least favorite of his father’s sons. The chronicler Hugo Falcandus[6] described William as politically lethargic, more concerned with pleasure than with governance. However, William had positive traits as well; a fierce protective instinct towards his Muslim Maltese subjects, an eye for talent, and a towering Norman physicality. William was described as being six feet tall, with a great blond beard and the proverbial strength to bend an iron horseshoe with his bare hands. William was married to Margaret of Navarre, daughter of King Garcia Rameriz of Navarre, and by the time of his father’s death, William had a son named Roger. William disliked his older brothers, especially the illegitimate Simon, who he felt had too much power for a bastard.

Fifth was the 28 year old[7] Simon, Prince of Taranto. One of Roger II’s large brood of illegitimate children, the king favored Simon above even his legitimate son William, granting him Taranto, though the city was an important fief. Simon had an air of recklessness and energy around him, and probably participated in his father’s raids on Greece in his later years.

Together, these brothers formed the ruling class of the Sicilian nobility, with all other Norman nobles beneath them in authority. The Assizes of Ariano ensured their supreme legal authority over the various counts and barons, and indeed, Arab and Greek magistrates appointed by Roger gave the burgeoning Sicilian royal bureaucracy administrative power over the nobles, a state of affairs the proud Normans hated.

Coronation and Invasion

Days after Roger II’s death, his eldest son was enthroned as Roger III, King of Sicily and Duke of Apulia. Likewise, his brothers Tancred, Alfonso, William, and Simon were confirmed in their previous titles. All seemed at peace… for a fortnight.

In the summer, news came from Germany in the north; the German King Frederick of Hohenstaufen had come with a massive army to gain an Imperial crown, and to crush the Sicilians in the name of the pope. What was worse, Sicilian spies had discovered a potential alliance between Frederick and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Roger knew he could only fight one enemy at a time and so bribed the Cuman nomads in the Balkans to raid Greece, distracting the Byzantines temporarily.

Even with the Greek threat delayed, the Sicilian barons rose up in revolt, seeing a chance to exchange an over-powerful local ruler with a distant, lenient German monarch. Prince Simon was thrown out of Taranto, and fled to Palermo on Sicily proper, and Prince Alfonso and Prince Tancred were besieged in Capua and Bari respectively. Roger began to mobilize his soldiers from Sicily and Malta, but most of his cavalry had gone over to the rebels. Yet another bad omen arrived when the fiercely anti-Sicilian Nicholas Breakspear, an English cardinal, was elected Pope Adrian IV, the first English Pope. He immediately called for the overthrow of Roger III.

Meanwhile, throughout the fall and winter of 1154-1155, King Frederick had slowly advanced down the Alps, obtaining first the submission of Milan, the destruction of the rebellious town of Tortona, and the plunder of various other Italian cities, his distinctive red beard earning him the Italian nickname of Barbarossa, or “Redbeard”. He obtained the Iron Crown of Lombardy at Pavia, then met Pope Adrian IV outside the gates of Rome, as the new Bishop of Rome had been thrust out of the city by his own citizens.

The election of a new Pope had not sit well with the Romans, who had reclaimed more of their old republican identity for decades. The idea of a religious authority holding so much wealth and secular power was gradually seen as unpalatable and even sickening to the civic-minded Romans. They had enough of papal politics, and had thrown out Adrian and the papal government, forming a Commune of Rome under the loose leadership of Arnold of Brescia, a heretic monk.

As the army approached Rome, an ambassador from the Commune came out of the city, demanding “tribute”, and denouncing the concept of kings. The ambassador began a lengthy speech promoting the glories of Rome, to which Barbarossa interrupted by saying “The glories of Rome are behind it. I come not to honor Rome, but take that which is mine”[8], before dismissing the ambassador.
The German-Papal army entered Rome, and Barbarossa was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, but not without incident. The Romans felt insulted by the occupation of their city and enthronement of an Emperor, and rioted in the streets. The new Emperor’s army spent three days crushing the revolt brutally, and the residential areas of Rome were set aflame and gutted by imperial plunderers. Arnold of Brescia was hung for rebellion, and the Commune was suppressed completely.

The chronicler Hugo Falcundus states that as news came to Palermo of this chaos in Rome, the Sicilian king was said to have gleefully statedI could place a Mohammaden on Saint Peter’s throne, and he would cause less destruction than the English Pope and his pet German”. Such a comment is probably apocryphal, but displays the utter disdain Roger III had for the throne of St. Peter, which had waged war on the Normans in Sicily at least three times in Roger’s lifetime.

With the Imperial army distracted, Roger divided his army in two, and sent one toward rebel-held Taranto, retaking the city with a short siege and a bribe. Prince Simon was re-installed with a small force of mixed Italian and Arab Sicilian soldiers, ensuring he would have a loyal force against the Norman aristocracy.

The other half of the army went to Prince Tancred, who was besieged in Bari. Tancred had been able to last longer than his brothers in his ducal capital due to his preference for Greek bureaucrats and advisors. The citizens of Bari had been fiercely independent since the days of Robert Guiscard, and the extensive preparations of Tancred’s chief advisor Maio[9] allowed Bari to hold out nearly indefinitely against the rebels. Roger’s forces caught the rebel counts by surprise, and Tancred joined King Roger with his small Greek army, Roger promising that the Bariots would be given better fortifications and a “treasured place” in his court.

Meanwhile, the Sicilian’s successful sieges roused Barbarossa and Pope Adrian from Rome, and the massive Imperial army slowly advanced southwards, complaining of the summer heat and malaria, the emperor himself grumbling that “the Sicilians had the greatest general of all; Duke Summer[10]”. The emperor’s nickname for the Sicilian weather soon trickled down to his soldiers, who themselves complained to their Sicilian rebel allies. The loyalists soon heard of the nickname, and sardonically toasted “Duke Summer”, a moniker that remains to this day. With the summer heat as an ally, Roger III imitated the tactics of his father; avoiding the larger army of Barbarossa while letting the fractious nature of the German feudal system and the weather do his work for him.

Sure enough, by late August, the German vassals had demanded that they be released, and Sicilian gold found its way into the treasuries of the restive lords who had remained in Germany, and Barbarossa was forced to lead his army northward like his predecessor Lothair had. The emperor paused to siege and burn Spoleto to the ground for rebelling against him, but otherwise made temporary peace with the Sicilians. Pope Adrian IV, bereft of a powerful German monarch to aid him, also made peace with the Sicilians, but demanded that the Sicilians show their contrition for fighting against the anointed Holy Roman Emperor and the throne of St. Peter by rebuilding any churches that might have been destroyed in the fighting. Roger III understood this to be a face-saving measure for the Pope, and not only rebuilt several churches, but proceeded to found monasteries across Southern Italy, in a show of wealth and power.


Also in the summer, Roger III sent gifts to Geza II, King of Hungary, asking for the gift of a small force of Croat warriors, explaining in a letter that “Croats would be a worthy surprise to any man who thinks himself learned in the armies of Sicily”. King Geza, who was Roger III's brother-in-law, sent a force of a few hundred Croats chosen for their ferocity in battle.



However, there was one final attempt at toppling the new King of Sicily. In the autumn months of 1155, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel, who had been delayed in his invasion of Sicily by plundering Cumans in the Balkans (paid by Sicilian gold), attempted to outdo his rival emperor and the Pope.

Manuel sent ten warships filled with eight thousand Greek, Bulgarian, and Turcopole soldiers, and a hefty bribe of gold to the remaining aristocratic rebels. The army was led by the brilliant Michael Palaiologos, being joined by the rebel Count Robert of Loritello, and Andronikos Komnenos[11], cousin to Emperor Manuel.

The first city that Michael faced was the mighty fortress of Bari, which as noted previously, had a strong Greek Orthodox character, and was traditionally wary of the Italo-Normans. However, any hopes Michael had of a quick invasion were dashed by the Bariots closing the gates of their fortress to him, in loyalty to their “half-Greek” prince Tancred. The frustrated general set a third of his forces to siege Bari, and joined the rest of his army to the rebel Normans, meeting Roger III in battle outside the town of Brindisi in late November, 1155.

The Battle of Brindisi

The chronicler Hugo Falcundus is the main source for the Battle of Brindisi, and he spends more time detailing (or defaming) the personalities involved rather than describing the battle. According to Hugo, the two opposing armies lined up on a field outside of Brindisi, the Byzantine-rebel army being composed of the Greeks, Bulgarians, and Turcopoles of the Byzantines, and the heavily cavalry force of Robert of Loritello. The Bulgarians were led by the brave Andronikos Komnenos. On the other side, Roger III commanded a small cavalry center, diminished by the rebels holding most of the horses and horsemen in the kingdom. Augmenting Roger was a core of Lombard infantry commanded by Prince Alfonso of Capua (the siege of Capua had faded quietly away), and Muslim archers under Prince William of Malta. A final mixed force of Greek Bariots recruited from towns nearby Bari and Roger’s newly acquired Croats were commanded by Prince Tancred, whose city had been twice put under siege in two years.

The two armies began by advancing towards each other, the impetuous Roger III charging his cavalry at the front lines of Michael Palaiologo’s army, with the Muslim archers of Prince William firing at the Byzantine Turcopoles to prevent them from firing at the core of Lombard infantry.
The sheer force of the cavalry charge surprised Palaiologos, but he sent his Bulgarians forward, some of which had served alongside (or against) the Varangian Guard. The Bulgarians hacked their way through much of Roger’s remaining cavalry. Roger was forced to withdraw, but Falcundus records that he “withdrew into the Turcopoles”, bloodying their ranks as well, before “properly” disengaging from the fight.

At the same time, the Capuan Lombards under Prince Alfonso were taking heavy losses by an assault from the rebel cavalry, Prince Alfonso himself losing an arm in the melee.

It was then, Falcundus writes, that Roger gave a mighty roar, declaring that as God for a witness, he would not fall to craven rebels and arrogant Greeks. He commanded the Croats and loyalist Greeks of Prince Tancred forward, which crashed into the rebel cavalry, sending them running. The chronicler claimed that the “cowardly” Count Robert fled at the first sign of true danger, and left his horsemen to die, and it is true that Count Robert was one of the few rebel aristocrats that survived the battle and its aftermath.

The defeat of the Norman cavalry proved to be a turning point, and the previously successful Bulgarians fled as well after a short melee against the Croat warriors, who “hacked each man in pieces from head to toe”. Their commander Andronikos “fought like a lion”, but did not survive, his personal effects hacked from his body and claimed by victorious Croats. The Turcopoles had remained mostly unharmed, but had been unable to outfire the mass of Muslim archers under Prince William, and so fled as well. The last remaining troops of the Byzantine-rebel army were Michael Palaiologo’s core of Greek and rebel Norman infantry, and the similarly battered Sicilian army finally fell upon this last core of resistance and shattered it, capturing Michael Palaiologos and some of his more distinguished lieutenants, but slaying most of the rebels with a vengeance. With that, the Battle of Brindisi was over.

Aftermath

With the utter defeat of the rebels and the Byzantine invasion, there was only the sweeping up of the remnants of the enemy forces (mostly at Bari, where the siege had continued after the defeat at Brindisi), and of course, ransoms. This Roger did happily, ransoming Michael Palaiologos and his lieutenants for a massive amount of wealth. Falcundus writes that Roger immediately wrote to Geza a few weeks after the battle, asking for more Croats and explaining that it was due to their efforts that he recently came into possession of a vast amount of gold. For it was the Croats who had allowed Roger to keep his crown, and enjoy a moment of peace from Sicily’s many enemies.


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[1] OTL Tancred of Lecce/Tancred of Sicily, who would be the last Norman King of Sicily. Obviously, he’s not going to have that sad fate here. Though he will feature elsewhere in the TL...

[2] I have no idea if he actually felt this way, but I figured that I should give personality traits for each son of Roger II, since their Wiki pages (or my actual source, John Julius Norwich’s excellent books on Sicily), don’t exactly reveal much. So Tancred of Bari gets to be an intellectual who loves Greek culture.

[3] Alfonso of Capua has a much more substantive Wiki page than Tancred does, and it mentions that he fought in battle several times, and was well-versed in administration. So he sticks with those traits.

[4] Real daughter of Bela II of Hunary, fake marriage to Alfonso of Capua.

[5] OTL William was not Count of Malta; he seems to have been considered the least favorite son, and even after the death of all of his brothers, his father did not prepare him to rule at all. No wonder he was a terrible king. In this TL, he’s at least well-regarded enough to be count of the least of his father’s territory.

[6] For those who like Norman Sicily, did you think I’d forget this jerk? Hugo Falcundus was an OTL chronicler throughout much of the kingdom’s history, probably being a prominent figure of some sort, who loved court gossip and ascribing evil motives to anyone and everyone. In short, hilarious and a major source of ITTL information as well.

[7] I don’t actually know how old Simon of Taranto was, but I imagine he’d be near to the age of his brothers, maybe on the younger side. He was pretty energetic OTL, and took part in at least one rebellion against William I. Here, Roger is probably less of a jerk and lets him keep his title.

[8] Happened OTL, Frederick apparently cut off the Commune ambassador in the middle of a long-winded speech and made fun of Ancient Rome. Don't you love history?

[9] Like Hugo Falcandus and Tancred of Lecce, I’m not going to just leave Maio of Bari by the wayside. In OTL, he apparently had some sort of secret police that fended off threats to himself (as William I’s chief minister), and to the king himself. He was murdered in 1160 in OTL by a son-in-law, who later tried to overthrow William I as well.

[11] Honestly, OTL Sicily had so many close saves from invasion due to their brutal summer that I figure they could get an equivalent to General Winter.

[11] Yes, that Andronikos Komnenos. No Emperor Paranoid this time!
 
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Zioneer

Banned
I feel like this update in particular may have been difficult to follow; I had a hard time writing it, and wasn't sure where to put some things. Thoughts? Also, the formatting messed up between the Word document and actual posting.
 

Zioneer

Banned
What's this, an update?


Chapter 2: Wedding Bells and the Sardinian War

Having ended the invasions of the Byzantines and the Germans, the Sicilian crown spent the winter of 1155-1156 capturing the remaining rebels and executing their ringleaders. King Roger III grew fond of a particular method of execution: the condemned would be tied with ropes connected to stones, and thrown into the Mediterranean. Several rebel counts suffered this fate, while others merely had their estates reduced and given to loyal soldiers. Some of the rebel lands changed hands from Norman control to Lombards and even converted Catholic Greeks.

Conversano, for example, abandoned by the fleeing rebel count Robert III of Loritello, was given to a Leo Phokas[1], Greek Catholic, and distant cousin of the great Byzantine landowners and usurpers of the 900s. This new count Latinized his name to Leon Phocas, and served as Prince Tancred of Bari’s chief lieutenant and chronicler. The Lombard man-at-arms Pandulf of Teano[2] was given ownership of that small, but strategic town near the lands of the Pope.

The less prominent rebels were given the opportunity to swear everlasting loyalty to the Sicilian crown and to Roger III personally, and to be declared outlaws and stripped of their territories if they did not. Most of the minor barons chose wisely, and declared their loyalty to Roger.


However, reorganizing his territories was not Roger III’s chief concern. Like his famous granduncle Robert Guiscard, Roger wanted to conquer, to extend his power, authority, and wealth. Initially, the chronicler Hugo Falcundus writes, Roger wished to invade Greece, and plunder its rich lands. But Prince Tancred of Brai, who “loved Greeks more than his own race”, persuaded Roger that every prior Norman invasion of Greece had ended poorly, and that even Guiscard had never been able to keep his Greek conquests save the island of Corfu.

Additionally, while the Greeks had been defeated at Brindisi, the Sicilian army had been mangled as well, and needed time to recover. Prince Tancred recommended that a “soft” approach to expansion be taken until the armies were recovered; in other words, marriage and diplomacy instead of war. Count Leon, Tancred’s chronicler, claims that the Prince finally won the king over by pointing out that, if fortune favored the Sicilians, they might be able to claim lands in the name of an heiress.

So it was that Sicily rested during the year of 1156, while marriages were found for several of the ruling D’Hautville dynasty. The wifeless Prince Tancred was married to Alais, daughter of Count William VI of Montpellier. The illegitimate Prince Simon of Taranto was married to Margaret of Savoy, fourth sister of Count Humbert III of Savoy. Finally, their sister Clenenza[3] was married to Barisone II of Arborea, a Sardinian lord whose new marriage alliance with Sicily would prove most contentious…

Also during 1156, Prince Alfonso had a daughter named Agnes with his wife Sophia of Hungary, and King Roger had a son named Humphrey with his wife, Isabella of Champagne. The child was sickly, but as Roger had three healthy brothers, none feared for the succession. Roger’s brood of illegitimate children also grew, as his mistress Emma of Lecce bore a son named Ranulf.

Little else of note would happen in Sicily throughout 1156, though many took note that the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa would also marry, to the heiress Beatrice of Burgundy, gaining control of the vast County of Burgundy[4]. A minor rebellion would occur in the Ifriqyan territories[5], but the king send his brother Prince William and illegitimate son Tancred of Lecce to suppress the revolt, and little came from it.

The Sicilian chroniclers would note that Venice to the north seemed to be in a state of turbulence, as their naval contribution to the Byzantine invasion of Sicily had been smashed along with the rest of the invasion, and many of their best sailors (and their merchant captains) were dead. Supposedly, the House of Dandolo had attempted to seize power, but little else was known for many months. But in the minds of the Sicilians, the affairs of the merchants to the north were not a pressing matter.
As the winter of 1156-1157 turned to spring, then to summer, the peace and tranquility of Sicily would end, as Barisone II in Sardinia would call for his brother-in-law’s aid.

The Sardinian Giudicati

386px-Giudicati_of_Sardinia_1.svg.png

The four regions of Sardinia

By 1157, the island of Sardinia was divided into four regions, called Giudicati, ruled by “Judikes”[6] or “Judges”. These regions evolved from Roman and later Byzantine governors who would grow in autonomy and power as the imperial authority faded from the West, and would eventually take on a feudal, monarchical character. While the office of Judge was theoretically filled by election, the ruling family in each Giudicati always “won” the election, and better resembled petty kings than governors.

The four regions of Sardina were Cagliari in the south ruled by Peter I, Arborea in a central position ruled by Barisone II, Logudoro or Torres in the northwest ruled by a different Barisone II, who was brother of Peter, and Gallura in the northeast ruled by Constantine III. Mixed among the Giudicati were outposts of two maritime republics, Genoa and Pisa. Arborea seems to have had the least influence from either Genoa or Pisa, which explained Barisone’s desire to ally with the Sicilians.

In any case, Barisone II of Arborea had invaded the neighboring Giudicati of Cagliari in order to claim his lands for himself, and had initially been successful, driving Peter of Cagliari out, and forcing him to flee to his brother Barisone of Torres. However, in the summer the remaining Cagliarians, the Torres Barisone, and the Pisans had united against Arborea, driving him out and besieging him in the castle of Cabras. The Torres Barisone had fallen ill and died during the siege[8], but Peter had been able to unite Torres under his control, easily resuming the siege. Constantine III of Gallura invaded Arborea as well, seizing parts of it for his own domain. The chastened Barisone was forced to call upon his new brother-in-law for help.

Roger mistrusted the ambitious Barisone, but as Hugo Falcundus wrote “Roger could not ignore a meal such as Sardina”. Under Roger himself and his illegitimate son Prince Tancred of Lecce, with the Archbisop Hugh of Palermo in attendance, a force of three thousand foot soldiers from the Sicilian mainland, and several hundred of the ever-present Muslim archers from the province of Ifriqya landed near the Arborean fortress of Cabras, where Barisone was waiting.

From the start, the alliance was uneasy. Falcundus, who may have actually been present, writes that as soon as Roger set foot in Cabras, the Judike of Arborea unleashed a withering, foul-mouthed storm of criticism at the Sicilian, while his wife Clenenza, sister of Roger, futilely attempted to dissuade him. The proud Roger took offense at the critique, and demanded an apology, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword. The level-headed Prince Tancred[9] walked in front of the two in-laws, and caused them to stop feuding, an action that caused the acid-tongue Barisone to remark that Roger’s “bastard monkey prince” was good for something after all, which infuriated Roger further. The Sicilian monarch drew his sword (somewhat theatrically, Falcundus adds), and declared that either Barisone apologize and address the Sicilians as “my king” and “my prince”, or Roger’s men would sail back to Sicily without aiding Barisone. The desperate Barisone stammered out an apology, and thereafter gave his new in-law respect, and even submission, of a sort.

The consensus among modern Rogerian historians is that this dramatic event likely could have happened, but Roger’s anger was mere theatrics to impress upon the Sardinians the importance of submission, and perhaps fealty.

With the matter of respect solved, the remaining Arborean host combined with the Sicilians to first drive Constantine of Gallura out of Arborea. This was accomplished within a month, as Roger’s veteran host far outnumbered the Galluran army, and the few skirmishes fought disfavored Constantine’s army.

Peter of Cagliari had watched this display of martial might, and fought a scorched-earth campaign, looting or burning anything that could be used for food as he withdrew from Arborea into his Cagliarian domain. Food became scarce, and as the Sicilians crossed south into Cagaliarian territory, some began to grumble at the discomfort. According to Falcundus, Roger halted the Sicilian advance, and declared that the privations of campaigning in “this blighted land” were intolerable, and refused to advance further. He proclaimed that conquering Cagliari was not worth the effort if he did not have a loyal deputy, a vassal of sorts.

Barisone protested, and invoked the honor of the D’Hautvilles, Roger's family. Roger still refused. After several days, Barisone finally submitted, allowing Archbishop Hugh to oversee the ceremony of vassalship (for which the Archbishop was oddly well-prepared). Barisone was quickly proclaimed as “Duke and Judge of Sardina, and Count of Arborea”[10], with Roger as his liege lord, and after a day’s further rest, the advance continued, sweeping into Cagliari. Towns were intimidated or crushed into submission, and the enemy could not stand before the Sicilians.

By the end of the campaigning season, the Sicilians had advanced almost to the city of Cagliari itself, when Peter, Judike of Cagliari, finally stirred and brought his army to face Roger, with added troops from Genoa and Pisa.

The two armies clashed, and though Peter fought valiantly, the superior numbers and experience of the Sicilians won the day. After a quick siege of the city of Cagliari, Peter was forced to flee Sardinia completely, a flight which took him to Pisa itself.

The newly crowned Duke Barisone installed himself in his old rival’s capital, and urged King Roger to help him seize the rest of Sardina. However, owing to his experiences in the baronial rebellions in Sicily, Roger mistrusted an overmighty vassal. In the citadel of Cabras, he stationed a sizable garrison of Lombard foot soldiers and Sicilian Muslim archers under Prince Tancred of Lecce, trusting his son’s judgement to keep his erstwhile ally in check. Barisone would have to content himself with control of the southern half of Sardinia, under Sicilian supervision, while the north was divided up among power-hungry vassals of Constantine of Gallura. King Roger and the rest of the troops left for Sicily after extracting a vow of vassalage from Barisone once more.

The winter of 1157 would pass uneventfully for Sicily, a respite from the tumultuous years to come...

-------


[1] I don’t find it unreasonable that a random Phokid might have become a mere man-at-arms type and found his way to Sicily two centuries after Basil II smashed the main Phokas line.


[2] Made up just like Leon Phocas, but again, I could imagine that there’d be a semi-prominent Lombard soldier who could gain the lands of a rebel. Spoiler: He isn’t actually going to be prominent in the TL, I just wanted to give an example of some of the new nobility under Roger III.

[3] Clenenza existed, but was illegitimate. In OTL, she married a Sicilian count, but I could see Barisone accepting even an illegitimate wife.

[4] Barbarossa’s marriage to Beatrice of Burgundy happened OTL, I see no reason why it wouldn’t here.

[5] Happened OTL, eventually spiraled out of control and lost Sicily the African territories. However, that was under William the Bad, who was… not the most active of kings. Under Roger III, things are much more pro-active.

[6] OTL terms, look it up on Wikipedia, it’s actually really fascinating.

[7] Frankly, I just didn’t want to confuse the two Barisone IIs.

[8] The OTL King Tancred was absurdly gracious and polite to Richard the Lionheart when he came through Sicily on the way to the crusade, giving him gifts, flattery, and the best lodgings, even when the Lionheart took over a small town of his and massacred the unhappy citizens, for the sake of an alliance that turned out to be nothing. Also, Tancred looked like a monkey, according to very rude chroniclers.

[9] Probably a wildly illegal title, but Roger has a chance, and with loyal Archbishop in tow, he's taking it.
 
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Zioneer

Banned
Anything anybody wants to know so far? I've been kind of lax on the rest of Europe since very little has changed so far.
 
More than in Europe ... let me know if you have any plans for intervention in the Maghreb and the possible extension of the province of Ifriqya ... taking advantage of the irreversible decline and final fall of the Fatimids and of course their relations with the Iberian Peninsula and the Taifas.
 
Quite an interesting timeline, and I like the various insights you provide about OTL. I've always been fond of Sicily, so I'll be interested in following along with this.
 
Anything anybody wants to know so far? I've been kind of lax on the rest of Europe since very little has changed so far.

I am liking this, I hope you will continue, because a surviving Hauteville sicily is on of my favorite AH scenarios. I will be following this closely.
I like the way you are operating Rover III: he acts a bit like a Mafia don (drowning rebels was OTL, or yours? It's a nice touch) which is imho a good idea given the time period. I also like how you have stirred Sicilian ambitions away from Greece, it didn't seem forced.

Now, questions:

1- Have there been butterflies in the holy lands? The Sicilians have still some claims to Antioch I think, and maybe could participate in the second crusade? Maybe not a great idea... But they should provide transport and crusade is a good outlet for hot-headed and disgruntled Norman knights, who might otherwise rebel.

2- related to that, it looks like the Sicilian navy is pr3tty strong, beating even the Venetians. This is very good and Sicily should use its strategic position to undercut the business of the northern città marinate. Amalfi has already been sacked, but it still exist and could be supported/granted autonomy etc. An Amalfitan revival would be pretty interesting to read. Or you could develop Palermo and Bari as trade hubs under royal control. In any case, I think Sicily should invest something on creating naval supremacy around its coasts. Saracene pirates were a scourge on coastal areas that lasted centuries and hampered development very much. There is a reason why in Sardinia most villages are far from the coast, at least not in visual distance of the sea.

3- when you speak of Muslim archers, should we picture foot or horse archers? I suppose the former, but I am not sure. If the Sicilians take a stable hold on Sardinia, there is wonderful military stock there, especially among the herdsmen of the hilly centre and north of the island.
Maybe Roger was impressed by them in battle and asks Barisone to provide him with some recruits.as he seems fond of exotic and loyal guardsmen. sardinian light cavalry might be interesting too.
 
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What are Pisa and Genoa doing about the fact that half of Sardinia has been gobbled up by Sicily? You mentioned Pisan/Genoan forces fighting for Peter, but presumably besting their auxiliaries on land is a totally different thing from besting their fleets.

The Giudicati are nominally the vassals of the Archbishop of Pisa at this time, on account of the Pope claiming them via the Donation of Constantine and granting them to Pisa subsequently. One wonders what Pope Adrian is going to think about this, particularly if the Sicilians try to set up their own (arch)diocese over the island, which they'd surely have to do unless they wanted their enemies to have ecclesiastical jurisdiction over their new vassal.

At any rate, I'm glad Barisone managed to achieve something other than failure and massive debt. The Genoese really screwed him over IOTL. In this scenario, I could imagine the Genoese trying to ingratiate themselves with Sicily to make the best of a somewhat awkward situation.
 

Zioneer

Banned
More than in Europe ... let me know if you have any plans for intervention in the Maghreb and the possible extension of the province of Ifriqya ... taking advantage of the irreversible decline and final fall of the Fatimids and of course their relations with the Iberian Peninsula and the Taifas.

Oh, the next update (or perhaps the update after that) will feature the Maghreb and Ifriqya heavily. After all, there are the Almohads running around. As are the Almoravids over in the Balearic Isles.

I am liking this, I hope you will continue, because a surviving Hauteville sicily is on of my favorite AH scenarios. I will be following this closely.
I like the way you are operating Rover III: he acts a bit like a Mafia don (drowning rebels was OTL, or yours? It's a nice touch) which is imho a good idea given the time period. I also like how you have stirred Sicilian ambitions away from Greece, it didn't seem forced.

Now, questions:

1- Have there been butterflies in the holy lands? The Sicilians have still some claims to Antioch I think, and maybe could participate in the second crusade? Maybe not a great idea... But they should provide transport and crusade is a good outlet for hot-headed and disgruntled Norman knights, who might otherwise rebel.

2- related to that, it looks like the Sicilian navy is pr3tty strong, beating even the Venetians. This is very good and Sicily should use its strategic position to undercut the business of the northern città marinate. Amalfi has already been sacked, but it still exist and could be supported/granted autonomy etc. An Amalfitan revival would be pretty interesting to read. Or you could develop Palermo and Bari as trade hubs under royal control. In any case, I think Sicily should invest something on creating naval supremacy around its coasts. Saracene pirates were a scourge on coastal areas that lasted centuries and hampered development very much. There is a reason why in Sardinia most villages are far from the coast, at least not in visual distance of the sea.

3- when you speak of Muslim archers, should we picture foot or horse archers? I suppose the former, but I am not sure. If the Sicilians take a stable hold on Sardinia, there is wonderful military stock there, especially among the herdsmen of the hilly centre and north of the island.
Maybe Roger was impressed by them in battle and asks Barisone to provide him with some recruits.as he seems fond of exotic and loyal guardsmen. sardinian light cavalry might be interesting too.

First, I do like your perspective of Roger III as a mafia boss. Most of the early Italo-Normans acted like a form of mafia, especially Roger's great-uncle Robert Guiscard. As for the form of execution, I read about it happening to I think a foe of the Byzantines, and figured that the Sicilians would like a cheap, brutal way to dispose of their enemies.

1) There haven't been too many butterflies in the Holy Land; the Second Crusade happened about 10 years before Roger III ascended to the throne. The Sicilians seemed to care little about the Holy Land, as they preferred not to stir up attacks towards their Muslim subjects, and tended to be rather skeptical of the Pope temporal authority, including his authority to call religious wars. Roger II refused to commit to a crusade, and the OTL William I and William II rarely bothered with any sort of Crusade preparations, preferring to make money selling supplies to the Crusaders. Even the Sicilian-bred Frederick II Hohenstaufen took the smallest amount of effort to fulfill any Crusade obligations. My view is that Roger III would have much the same perspective, though he might be a bit more devout than his father. Roger II actually hated the kingdom of Jerusalem for repudiating his mother when she went to marry the then-King of Jerusalem.

The Sicilians knew of their cousins in Antioch through cross-immigration through Normandy, Sicily, and Antioch, and several notable Norman families had members in each area. Right now, Antioch is controlled by Raynald of Châtillon, who is ruling on the behalf of his wife, Constance, who is the actual Princess of Antioch. She's a distant cousin of Roger III.

2) I'm not sure on that count, though I know that Palermo was becoming a rich and powerful city on its own, and that the maritime republics (or the proto-version of them) were wary of Sicily's power, and allied with Sicily's enemies more than once throughout the reign of the OTL King Williams.

3) Foot archers. Besides the Normans, I don't know if there were especially good horsemen in Sicily and mainland Italy at this time. As for the Sardinians, they'll show up in Roger's army, which is really a collection of nationalities at this point. I intend to showcase the Sicilian army in a later update. And Roger does like exotic soldiers, mostly because he doesn't trust his barons to stay loyal.

What are Pisa and Genoa doing about the fact that half of Sardinia has been gobbled up by Sicily? You mentioned Pisan/Genoan forces fighting for Peter, but presumably besting their auxiliaries on land is a totally different thing from besting their fleets.

The Giudicati are nominally the vassals of the Archbishop of Pisa at this time, on account of the Pope claiming them via the Donation of Constantine and granting them to Pisa subsequently. One wonders what Pope Adrian is going to think about this, particularly if the Sicilians try to set up their own (arch)diocese over the island, which they'd surely have to do unless they wanted their enemies to have ecclesiastical jurisdiction over their new vassal.

At any rate, I'm glad Barisone managed to achieve something other than failure and massive debt. The Genoese really screwed him over IOTL. In this scenario, I could imagine the Genoese trying to ingratiate themselves with Sicily to make the best of a somewhat awkward situation.

Thanks for the input, Carp! As I've said before, I've enjoyed your timeline, and I hope you enjoy mine.

As for Pisa and Genoa, they're pretty angry at Sicily's bald-faced expansion in Sardina, but currently they're licking their wounds. They're not quite as strong as Venice, and even Venice took a beating (in both ITTL and OTL) from the Sicilians. They're considering some retribution against Sicily, which they'll be well-placed to do soon.

As for the navy, I'm going off of John Julius Norwich's books on Norman Sicily, which specifically points out that OTL William I pulled off a semi-amphibious attack on the Greek invasion back in 1156. Plus, the highest ranking official in the court was often the "admiratus", or admiral, so I imagine that's further proof for a strong navy, or at least a notable one.

Regarding Pope Adrian, he seems to have had a specifically anti-Sicilian policy, so he's quite angry at this point. You'll definitely see his reaction to things in the next couple of updates. Good point on the Archbishopric of Pisa, though the Normans seem to have had no problem fighting churchmen (Norwich noted that Roger II employed Muslim soldiers against papal armies, and captured the popes more than once). So while they won't go all Martin Luther or anything, they had no problem defying the Pope.

Good point with Barisone and the Genose (and the Pisan and Genose is all OTL, by the way). I would imagine the Genose are less anti-Sicily due to their interests outside Southern Europe, and their less proximity to Sicily. Barisone himself is largely independent, but formally a Sicilian vassal. He's far away from his OTL "King of Sardinia" moment, but with Sicilian backing, he's definitely the strongest man on the island.
 
Thanks for the input, Carp! As I've said before, I've enjoyed your timeline, and I hope you enjoy mine.

Thanks!

As for the navy, I'm going off of John Julius Norwich's books on Norman Sicily, which specifically points out that OTL William I pulled off a semi-amphibious attack on the Greek invasion back in 1156. Plus, the highest ranking official in the court was often the "admiratus", or admiral, so I imagine that's further proof for a strong navy, or at least a notable one.
I wouldn't read too much into a(d)miratus, because the term is merely a Latinization of "emir" and should be translated that way. The Sicilians used it to refer to a number of different posts, military and non-military, and not exclusively naval. Yes, some of Sicily's famous naval commanders were titled amiratus, but I would guess that this is because they tended to have Muslim or Arabized Christian backgrounds (the Normans, after all, were not really renowned for their seamanship) so it was only appropriate to give them an Arabic-derived title. George of Antioch's grandiose title ammiratus ammiratorum doesn't mean "admiral of admirals," it means "emir of emirs," which was already an existing term in Arabic (amir al-umara). But the term wasn't necessarily used only for Arabic-speakers, or even for military commanders - Maio of Bari held the title of ammiratus ammiratorum despite the fact that he was strictly an administrator and diplomat and probably never commanded soldiers once in his life. The usage of the term for him is more like the original Arabic use of amir al-umara, signifying a vizier or "prime minister" sort of figure, which is exactly what Maio was.

No doubt Sicily had a decent navy, and probably one capable of "semi-amphibious" operations, but the use of amiratus isn't any proof of that. At most it's further proof of Roger's philo-Arabism. The morphing of amiratus into "admiral" and its attendant naval connotation happened at a substantially later date.

Regarding Pope Adrian, he seems to have had a specifically anti-Sicilian policy, so he's quite angry at this point.
Well, if you mean OTL, he basically switched sides after the Treaty of Benevento that ended the war between the Normans and the Greeks (the Pope was on the side of the Greeks in that war). One of the Imperialist allegations against Adrian in the wake of his death was that he had conspired to give the papal banner to William of Sicily (sort of like William the Conqueror) and intended to excommunicate the emperor and lead a Lombard-Sicilian alliance to wage war against him. Basically, as things got worse between Adrian and the emperor, Adrian and William became better friends.

Good point with Barisone and the Genose (and the Pisan and Genose is all OTL, by the way). I would imagine the Genose are less anti-Sicily due to their interests outside Southern Europe, and their less proximity to Sicily. Barisone himself is largely independent, but formally a Sicilian vassal. He's far away from his OTL "King of Sardinia" moment, but with Sicilian backing, he's definitely the strongest man on the island.
One thing I've noticed about Sardinian history at this time is that there is a constant effort by the natives to balance out foreign powers. When the filopisani (pro-Pisans) get too powerful, you start to see the giudici switch sides and become filogenovesi (pro-Genoese). Barisone IOTL tries to invent a third option, first marrying into the House of Barcelona and then appealing to the emperor for a crown, but for the latter he ends up depending on Genoese support anyway, which is his undoing, because the Genoese never really wanted an effective "King of Sardinia" all that much.

In this timeline, Barisone has basically created a new faction, the filosiciliani (filonormanni?), and the fact that they just beat up the other guys and now possess half the island suggests to me that there's going to be a big shift towardswhichever of the Italian republics seems like the stronger one - maybe even by Barisone himself, if he's been sufficiently humiliated or if the Sicilian yoke proves too onerous.
 
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