Page 565 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

and seen for themselves the rewards to be gained. One of these, William “Bras de

Fer” (“Iron Arm”), who had earned his nickname by his slaying of the Emir of
Syracuse with one blow, was the eldest of the Hauteville brothers, whose exploits
were soon to change the map of southern Europe.

The Normans

The Hauteville brothers had long been active in southern Italy by the time the
youngest of them, Roger, seized Messina in 1061 in response to a call for help by one

of the warring Arab factions. It took another thirty years to take control of the whole
island, in a series of bloody and destructive campaigns that often involved the
enlistment of Arabs on the Norman side. In 1072 Palermo was captured and adopted
as the capital of Norman Sicily, and was subsequently adorned with palaces and
churches that count among the most brilliant achievements of the era.

The most striking thing about the Norman period in Sicily is its brief span. In little
more than a century, five kings bequeathed an enormous legacy of art and architecture

that is still one of the most conspicuous features of the island. When compared with
the surviving remains of the Byzantines, who reigned for three centuries, or the Arabs,
whose occupation lasted roughly two, the Norman contribution stands out, principally
due to its absorption of previous styles: the finest examples of Arab art to be seen in
Sicily are elements incorporated into the great Norman churches. It was this fusion of

talent that accounted for the great success of Norman Sicily, not just in the arts but in
administration, justice and religious tolerance. The policy of integration was largely
determined by force of circumstances: the Normans could not count on having
adequate numbers of their own settlers, or bureaucrats to form a governmental class,
and instead were compelled to rely on the existing framework. They did, however,
gradually introduce a Latinized aristocracy and clerical hierarchy from northern Italy
and France, so that the Arabic language was largely superseded by Italian and French

by 1200.

The Hauteville dynasty

The first of the great Sicilian-Norman dynasty was Count Roger, or Roger I. He was

a resolute and successful ruler, marrying his daughters into two of the most powerful
European dynasties, one of them to the son of the western (or Holy Roman) emperor
Henry IV. Roger’s death in 1101, followed soon after by the death of his eldest son,
left Sicily governed by his widow Adelaide as regent for his younger son, who in
1130 was crowned Roger II. This first Norman king of Sicily was also one of
medieval Europe’s most gifted and charismatic rulers, who made the island a great
melting pot of the most vigorous and creative elements in the Mediterranean world. He

spoke Greek, kept a harem and surrounded himself with a medley of advisers, notably