This article is about the Norman kingdom founded in 1130 and its successors based on the island of Sicily. For the mainland southern Italian kingdom after 1282, seeKingdom of Naples.
After a brief rule by Charles of Anjou, a revolt in 1282 known as theSicilian Vespers threw offAngevin rule in the island of Sicily. The Angevins managed to maintain control in the mainland part of the kingdom, which became a separate entity also styledKingdom of Sicily, although it is retroactively referred to as theKingdom of Naples. The Kingdom of Sicily on the island(also known asKingdom of Trinacria between 1282 and 1442)[6][7] on the other hand, remained an independent kingdom ruled by relatives of theHouse of Barcelona, and was then added permanently to theCrown of Aragon as a result of theCompromise of Caspe of 1412.[8][9] Following thedynastic union of the crowns ofCastile and Aragon in 1479, it was aviceroyalty of the Spanish kingdom.[10] During theWar of the Spanish Succession (1700–1714), the island was taken over by theHouse of Savoy. In 1720, Savoy gave it to Austria in exchange for Sardinia. Later, the island was ruled by a branch of the Bourbons. Following the Napoleonic period, the Kingdom of Sicily was formally merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form theKingdom of the Two Sicilies, which in 1861 became part of thenew unified Kingdom of Italy.
By the 11th century, mainland southernLombard andByzantine powers were hiringNorman mercenaries, who were descendants ofVikings in northernFrance; it was the Normans underRoger I who conquered Sicily, taking it away from the Sicilian Muslims. After takingApulia andCalabria, Roger occupiedMessina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger I of Sicily and his men defeated the Muslims atMisilmeri but the most crucial battle was the Siege ofPalermo, which led to Sicily being completely under Norman control by 1091.[11]
In 1136, the rival of Anacletus,Pope Innocent II, convincedLothair III, Holy Roman Emperor to attack the Kingdom of Sicily with help from theByzantine EmperorJohn II Comnenus. Two main armies, one led by Lothair, the other byHenry X, Duke of Bavaria, invaded Sicily. On the RiverTronto,William of Loritello surrendered to Lothair and opened the gates ofTermoli to him.[14] This was followed by Count Hugh II of Molise. The two armies were united atBari, from where in 1137 they continued their campaign. Roger offered to give Apulia as afief to the Empire, which Lothair refused after being pressured by Innocent. At the same period, the army of Lothair revolted.[13][15]
Lothair, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, then gaveCapua and Apulia from the Kingdom of Sicily to Roger's enemies. Innocent protested, claiming that Apulia fell under Papal claims. Lothair turned north, but died while crossing the Alps on 4 December 1137. At theSecond Council of the Lateran in April 1139, Innocent excommunicated Roger for maintaining aschismatic attitude. On 22 March 1139, at Galluccio, Roger's sonRoger III, Duke of Apulia, ambushed the Papal troops with a thousand knights and captured the pope.[15] On 25 March 1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and possessions of Roger with theTreaty of Mignano.[13][15]
Roger spent most of the decade, beginning with his coronation and ending with theAssizes of Ariano, enacting a series of laws with which Roger intended to centralise the government. He also fended off several invasions and quelled rebellions by his premier vassals:Grimoald of Bari,Robert II of Capua,Ranulf of Alife,Sergius VII of Naples and others.
It was through his admiralGeorge of Antioch that Roger then conquered the littoral ofIfriqiya from theZirids, taking the unofficial title "King of Africa" and marking the foundation of the Norman Kingdom of Africa. At the same time, Roger's fleet also attacked theByzantine Empire, making Sicily a leading maritime power in theMediterranean Sea for almost a century.[13]
Roger's son and successor wasWilliam I of Sicily, known as "William the Bad", though his nickname derived primarily from his lack of popularity with the chroniclers, who supported the baronial revolts which William suppressed. In the mid-1150s, William lost the majority of his African possessions to a series of revolts by local North African lords. Then, in 1160, the final Norman African stronghold of Mahdia was taken by theAlmohads. His reign ended in peace in 1166. His elder sonRoger IV, Duke of Apulia had been killed in previous revolts, and his son,William II, was a minor. Until the end of the boy'sregency by his motherMargaret of Navarre in 1172, turmoil in the kingdom almost brought the ruling family down. The reign of William II is remembered as two decades of almost continual peace and prosperity. For this more than anything, he is nicknamed "the Good". However, he had no issue, which led to a succession crisis: his auntConstance, the sole heir to the throne as the daughter of Roger II, was long confined in a monastery as a nun, with her marriage beyond consideration due to a prediction that "her marriage would destroy Sicily". Nevertheless, in 1184, she was betrothed to Henry, the eldest son ofFrederick I, Holy Roman Emperor and the future EmperorHenry VI. William named Constance and Henry the heirs to the throne and had the noblemen swear oath, but the officials did not want to be ruled by a German, so the death of William in 1189 led the kingdom to decline.[14]
With the support of the officials,Tancred of Lecce seized the throne. In the same year, he had to contend with the revolt of his distant cousinRoger of Andria, a former contender who supported Henry and Constance but was tricked to execution in 1190, as well as the invasion of Henry, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor since 1191, who invaded on behalf of his wife. Henry had to retreat after his attack failed, with Empress Constance captured and only released under the pressure of the Pope. Tancred died in 1194, and Constance and Henry prevailed: the kingdom fell in 1194 to theHouse of Hohenstaufen.William III of Sicily, the young son of Tancred, was deposed, and Henry and Constance were crowned as king and queen. Through Constance, theHauteville blood was passed toFrederick, who reigned in Sicily as Frederick I.[14]
In 1197, the accession of Frederick, a child who would also becomeHoly Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1220, 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 unclePhilip of Swabia moved to secure Frederick's inheritance by appointingMarkward von Anweiler,margrave ofAncona, 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.[16]
The Hohenstaufen's grip on power, however, was not secure.Walter III of Brienne had married the daughter ofTancred of Sicily. She was sister and heiress of the deposed King William III of Sicily. In 1201, William decided to claim the kingdom. In 1202, an army led by the chancellorWalter of Palearia andDipold of Vohburg was defeated by Walter III of Brienne. Markward was killed, and Frederick fell under the control ofWilliam of Capparone, an ally of thePisans. 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.[14]
The Kingdom of Sicily in 1200
The reform of the laws began with theAssizes of Ariano in 1140 by Roger II of Sicily. Frederick I continued the reformation with theAssizes of Capua (1220) and the promulgation of theConstitutions of Melfi (1231, also known asLiber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time.[16] The Constitutions of Melfi were created in order to establish a centralized state. For example, citizens were not allowed to carry weapons or wear armour in public unless they were under royal command.[16] As a result, rebellions were reduced. The Constitutions made the Kingdom of Sicily anabsolute monarchy, the first centralizedstate in Europe to emerge fromfeudalism; it also set a precedent for the primacy of written law.[15] With relatively small modifications, theLiber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819.[17] During this period, he also built theCastel del Monte, and in 1224, he founded theUniversity of Naples, now calledUniversity of Naples Federico II.[18]
Frederick had to beat off a Papal invasion of Sicily in theWar of the Keys (1228–1230).[19] After his death, the kingdom was ruled byConrad IV of Germany. The next legitimate heir wasConradin, who was too young at the period to rule.Manfred of Sicily, the illegitimate son of Frederick, took power and ruled the kingdom for fifteen years while other Hohenstaufen heirs were ruling various areas in Germany.[16] After long wars against thePapal States, the Kingdom managed to defend its possessions, but thePapacy declared the Kingdom escheated because of the disloyalty of the Hohenstaufen.[20] Under this pretext, Manfred came to an agreement withLouis IX, King of France. Louis's brother,Charles of Anjou, would become king of Sicily. In exchange, Charles recognized the overlordship of the Pope in the Kingdom, paid a portion of the Papal debt, and agreed to pay annual tribute to the Papal States, theChinea.[20][21]
TheMiossi family, a noble family, was commissioned in 1251 byPope Innocent IV to administer the Kingdom of Sicily.[22] The Hohenstaufen rule in Sicily ended after the 1266Angevin invasion and the death ofConradin, the last male heir of Hohenstaufen, in 1268.[21]
In 1266, conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led to Sicily's conquest byCharles I, Duke ofAnjou. With the usurpation of the Sicilian throne from Conradin byManfred of Sicily in 1258, the relationship between the Papacy and the Hohenstaufen had changed again. Instead of the boy Conradin, safely sequestered across the Alps, the Papacy now faced an able military leader who had greatly supported theGhibelline cause at theBattle of Montaperti in 1260. Accordingly, when negotiations broke down with Manfred in 1262,Pope Urban IV again took up the scheme of disseising the Hohenstaufen from the kingdom, and offered the crown toCharles of Anjou again. With Papal andGuelph support Charles descended into Italy and defeated Manfred at theBattle of Benevento in 1266 and in 1268 Conradin at theBattle of Tagliacozzo.
Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from theCrown of Aragon and theByzantine Empire led to the successful insurrection of theSicilian Vespers followed by the invitation and intervention by KingPeter III of Aragon in 1282. The resultingWar of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until thePeace of Caltabellotta in 1302, dividing 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 toFrederick III of theHouse of Barcelona, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories (theMezzogiorno), contemporaneously called the Kingdom of Sicily but called theKingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went toCharles II of theHouse of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasystatus quo.[21] The division in the kingdom became permanent in 1372, with theTreaty of Villeneuve. Though the king of Aragon was able to seize both crowns in the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816, when they were reunited in theKingdom of Two Sicilies.
Map of the Kingdom from 1282 (following the Sicilian Vespers) to 1816.Martin I, King of Sicily in 1390–1409
Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives of theHouse of Barcelona, and was then added permanently to theCrown of Aragon as a result of theCompromise of Caspe of 1412.[8][9] The Kingdom of Naples was ruled by the Angevin rulerRené of Anjou until the two thrones were reunited byAlfonso V of Aragon, after the successful siege of Naples and the defeat of René on 6 June 1443.[8] Alfonso of Aragon divided the two kingdoms during his rule. He gave the rule of Naples to his illegitimate sonFerdinand I of Naples, who ruled from 1458 to 1494, and the rest of the Crown of Aragon and Sicily to his brotherJohn II of Aragon. From 1494 to 1503, successive kings of FranceCharles VIII andLouis XII, who were heirs of the Angevins, tried to conquer Naples (seeItalian Wars) but failed. Eventually, the Kingdom of Naples was reunited with the Crown of Aragon. The titles were held by theAragonese kings of the Crown of Aragon andKingdom of Spain until the end of the Spanish branch of theHouse of Habsburg in 1700.
From 1713 until 1720, the Kingdom of Sicily was ruled briefly by theHouse of Savoy, which had received it by the terms of theTreaty of Utrecht, which brought an end to theWar of the Spanish Succession. The kingdom was a reward to the Savoyards, who were thus elevated to royal rank. The new king,Victor Amadeus II, travelled to Sicily in 1713 and remained a year before returning to his mainland capital,Turin, where his son thePrince of Piedmont had been acting as regent. In Spain, the results of the war had not been truly accepted, and theWar of the Quadruple Alliance was the result. Sicily was occupied by Spain in 1718. When it became evident that Savoy had not the strength to defend as remote a country as Sicily,Austria stepped in and exchanged itsKingdom of Sardinia for Sicily. Victor Amadeus protested this exchange, Sicily being a rich country of over one million inhabitants and Sardinia a poor country of a few hundred thousand, but he was unable to resist his "allies". Spain was finally defeated in 1720, and theTreaty of the Hague ratified the changeover. Sicily belonged to the Austrian Habsburgs, who already ruled Naples.[24] Victor Amadeus, for his part, continued to protest for three years, and only in 1723 decided to recognize the exchange and desist from using the Sicilian royal title and its subsidiary titles (such as King of Cyprus and Jerusalem).
In 1734, in the aftermath of theWar of the Polish Succession, Naples was reconquered by KingPhilip V of Spain, a Bourbon, who installed his younger son, Duke Charles of Parma, as KingCharles VII of Naples, starting a cadet branch of theHouse of Bourbon. Adding to his Neapolitan possessions, he became also King of Sicily with the name of Charles V of Sicily the next year after Austria gave up Sicily and her pretensions to Naples in exchange for theDuchy of Parma and theGrand Duchy of Tuscany. This change of hands opened up a period of economic flourishing and social and political reforms, with many public projects and cultural initiatives directly started or inspired by the king. He remained King of Sicily until his accession to the Spanish throne asCharles III of Spain in 1759, theTreaty of Vienna (1738) with Austria forbidding a union of the Italian domains with the Crown of Spain.
Charles III abdicated in favour ofFerdinand, his third son, who acceded to the thrones with the names of Ferdinand IV of Naples and III of Sicily. Still a minor, Ferdinand grew up amongst pleasures and leisure while the real power was safely held byBernardo Tanucci, the president of the regency council. During this period most of the reform process initiated by Charles came to a halt, with the king mostly absent or uninterested in the matters of state and the political helm steered byQueen Maria Carolina and prime ministers Tanucci (until 1777) andJohn Acton. The latter tried to distance Naples and Sicily from the influence of Spain and Austria and to place them nearer toGreat Britain, then represented by ambassadorWilliam Hamilton. This is the period of theGrand Tour, and Sicily with its many natural and historical attractions was visited by a score of intellectuals from all over Europe that brought to the island the winds of theAge of Enlightenment, and spread the fame of its beauty in the continent.
In 1799,Napoleon conquered Naples, forcing King Ferdinand and the court to flee to Sicily under the protection of the British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson. While Naples was formed into theParthenopean Republic with French support and later again akingdom under French protection and influence, Sicily became the British base of operation in the Mediterranean in the long struggle against Napoleon. Under British guidance, especially fromLord William Bentinck who was commander of British troops in Sicily, Sicily tried to modernise its constitutional apparatus, forcing the King to ratify a Constitution modeled after the British system.[24] The island was under British occupation from 1806 to 1814.[25] The main feature of the new system was that a two-chamber parliament was formed (instead of the three of the existing one). The formation of the parliament brought the end offeudalism in the Kingdom.
After the defeat ofNapoleon in 1815, Ferdinand repealed all reforms and even erased the Kingdom of Sicily from the map (after a history of 800 years) by creating the brand-newKingdom of the Two Sicilies with Naples as its capital in 1816. The people of Sicily rebelled to this violation of its centuries-old statutes (which every king, including Ferdinand, had sworn to respect) but were defeated by the Neapolitan andAustrian forces in 1820. In 1848–49, anotherSicilian revolution of independence occurred, which was put down by the new king,Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, who was nicknamedRe Bomba after his 5-day bombardment of Messina. The increased hostility of the peoples and the elites of Sicily towards Naples and the Bourbon dynasty created a very unstable equilibrium, kept under control only by an increasingly oppressive police-state, political executions and exiles.
During the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, the local communities maintained their privileges. The rulers of the Hohenstaufen kingdom replaced the local nobility with lords from northern Italy, leading to clashes and rebellions against the new nobility in many cities and rural communities. These revolts resulted in the destruction of many agrarian areas and the rise of middle class nationalism, which eventually led to urban dwellers becoming allies of theAragonese.[16] This situation was continued during the short rule of the Angevins until their overthrowing during the Sicilian Vespers. The Angevins began feudalising the country, increasing the power of the nobility by granting them jurisdiction over high justice.[26]
At the same period, the feudalisation of the Kingdom of Sicily was intensified, through the enforcement of feudal bonds and relations among its subjects. The1669 Etna eruption destroyedCatania. In 1693, 5% of the Kingdom's population was killed because ofearthquakes. During that period, there were also plague outbreaks. The 17th and 18th century were an era of decline of the kingdom. Corruption was prevalent among the upper and middle classes of the society. Widespread corruption and mistreatment of the lower classes by the feudal lords led to the creation of groups of brigands, attacking the nobility and destroying theirfiefs.[24] These groups, which were self-named "mafia", were the foundation of the modernSicilian Mafia. The escalation of revolts against the monarchy eventually led to the unification with Italy.[27]
The kingdom had aparliament from 1097, which continued to sit throughout the realm's history until the Sicilian Constitution of 1812.
By the mid to late 13th century, estimates of the kingdom’s population range from 4 to perhaps 4.5 million, and given the proportion of mountain and pasture-land in the South, some districts must therefore have supported relatively large numbers of people.[28] During the Hohenstaufen era, the Kingdom had 3 towns with a population of over 20,000 each.[29] After the loss of the northern provinces in 1282 during theSicilian Vespers and several natural disasters like the1669 Etna eruption, the population of the Kingdom of Sicily was reduced.[24] In 1803, the population of the Kingdom was 1,656,000.[30] The main cities of the Kingdom at that time werePalermo,Catania,Messina,Modica,Syracuse.[30]
The high fertility of the land led the Norman kings to bring settlers from neighbouring regions or to resettle farmers to areas where cultivation of land was needed. This led to an increase in agricultural production. The main sources of wealth for the Kingdom of Sicily in that time were its maritime cities, most important of which were the ancient port cities ofNaples and its nearby counterpartAmalfi, from which local products were exported. The main export wasdurum wheat, with other exports includingnuts,timber,oil, bacon,cheese, furs,hides,hemp andcloth.[14] Grain and other dry products were measured in salme, which was equivalent to 275.08 litres in the western part of the Kingdom, and 300.3 litres in the eastern part. The salma was divided in 16 tumoli. One tumolo was equivalent to 17,193 litres. Weight was measured in cantari. One cantaro was equivalent to 79.35 kilograms (174.9 lb) and was divided in one hundred rottoli. Cloth was measured in canne. One canna was 2.06 meters long.[10] By the end of the 12th century,Messina had become one of the leading commercial cities of the kingdom.
Under the kingdom, Sicily's products went to many different lands. Among these wereGenoa,Pisa, theByzantine Empire, andEgypt. Over the course of the 12th century, Sicily became an important source of raw materials for north Italian cities such as Genoa. As the centuries went on, however, this economic relationship became less advantageous to Sicily, and some modern scholars see the relationship as definitely exploitative.[31] Furthermore, many scholars believe that Sicily went into decline in theLate Middle Ages, though they do not agree about when this decline occurred. Clifford Backman argues that it is a mistake to see the economic history of Sicily in terms of victimization, and contends that the decline really began in the second part of the reign of Frederick III, in contrast to earlier scholars who believed that Sicilian decline had set in earlier.[32] Where earlier scholars saw late medieval Sicily in continuous decline, Stephen Epstein argued that Sicilian society experienced something of a revival in the 15th century.[33]
Various treaties with Genoa secured and strengthened the commercial power of Sicily.[14]
The feudalisation of society during the Angevin rule reduced royal wealth and treasury. The dependence of the Angevins on north Italian commerce and financing byFlorentine bankers were the main factors which led to the decline of the Kingdom's economy.[26] The continuation of the economic decline combined with the increased population andurbanization led to decrease of agrarian production.
In 1800, one-third of the available crops was cultivated with obsolete methods, exacerbating the problem. In the later period of Spanish rule, the trading system was also inefficient compared with previous periods because of high taxes on exports and monopolising corporations which had total control of prices.[34]
The Norman kings in the 12th century used thetari, which had been used in Sicily from 913 as the basic coin. One tari weighed about one gram and was16+1⁄3 carats of gold. TheArabdinar was worth four tari, and theByzantinesolidus six tari.[14] In the kingdom, one onza was equivalent to thirty tari or five florins. One tari was worth twenty grani. One grana was equivalent to six denari. After 1140, the circulation of the copper coin romesina stopped and it was replaced by the follaris. Twenty-four follari were equivalent to one Byzantinemiliaresion.
After defeating theTunisians in 1231, EmperorFrederick II minted theaugustalis. It was minted in21+1⁄2 carats and weighed 5.28 grams.[35] In 1490, the triumphi were minted in Sicily. They were equivalent to theVenetianducat. One triumpho was worth11+1⁄2 aquilae. One aquila was worth twenty grani. In transactions tari and pichuli were mainly used.[10]
During the Norman reign, several different religious communities coexisted in the Kingdom of Sicily. These included Latin Catholics (Roman Catholics), Greek-rite Catholics (Greek Catholic),Muslims andJews. Although local religious practices were not interrupted, the fact that Latin Catholics were in power tended to favor Latin Catholicism (Roman Catholicism). Bishops of the Greek rite were obliged to recognize the claims of the Latin Church in Sicily, while Muslim communities were no longer ruled by localemirs. Greek-speaking Christians, Latin Christians, and Muslims interacted on a regular basis, and were involved in each other's lives, economically, linguistically, and culturally. Some intermarried. Catholics living in an Arabic-speaking area might adopt Arabic or even Muslim names.[36] In many cities, each religious community had its own administrative and judicial order. InPalermo, Muslims were allowed to publicly call for prayer in mosques, and their legal issues were settled byqadis, judges who ruled in accordance with Islamic law.[14] Since the 12th century, the Kingdom of Sicily recognizedChristianity as thestate religion.[37]
After the establishment of Hohenstaufen authority, Latin- and Greek-speaking Catholics maintained their privileges, but the Muslim population was increasingly oppressed. The settlements of Italians brought from northern Italy (who wanted Muslim property for their own) led many Muslim communities to revolt or resettle in mountainous areas of Sicily.[38] These revolts resulted in some acts of violence, and the eventual deportation of Muslims, which began underFrederick II. Eventually, the government removed the entire Muslim population toLucera inApulia andGirifalco inCalabria, where they paid taxes and served as agricultural laborers, craftsmen, and crossbowmen for the benefit of the king. The colony at Lucera was finally disbanded in 1300 underCharles II of Naples, and many of its inhabitants sold into slavery.[38] The Jewish community wasexpelled after the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition from 1493 to 1513 in Sicily. The remaining Jews were gradually assimilated, and most of them converted to Roman Catholicism.[10]
^abRzhevskaya, Valentina (31 March 2025).THE COMPROMISE OF CASPE: AN EPISODE FROM THE HISTORY OF PEACEFUL DISPUTE SETTLEMENT(PDF). European Political and Law Discourse. pp. 241–243.Page 241: On March 29 1412 the nine electors got down to their task in an Aragonese town of Caspe and on June 25 they declared the Castilian prince don Fernando elected. Fernando de Antequera was solemnly proclaimed King of Aragon three days later.
^Hunt Janin (2008).The University in Medieval Life, 1179–1499. McFarland. p. 132.ISBN978-0-7864-3462-6.
^Loud, G. A. (2016) [2011]. "The Papal 'Crusade' against Frederick II in 1228–1230". In Michel Balard (ed.).La Papauté et les croisades / The Papacy and the Crusades. Routledge. pp. 91–103.
^abKatherine Fisher (2004).Magna Carta. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 53,84–85.ISBN0-313-32590-1.
^Perry Anderson (1984).Lineages of the Absolutist State. Verso. p. 146.ISBN0-86091-710-X.
^abcdJedidiah Morse.A Compendious and Complete System of Modern Geography: or, A View of the Present State of the World. Thomas and Andrews. p. 503.
^Henri Bresc (inUn monde mediteranéen) claims that Sicily was relegated to being an agricultural satellite for wealthier northern Italian cities, and sees the Sicilian people as an early proletariat
^Backman,The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily, 1995.
^Epstein,An Island for Itself: Economic Development and Social Change in Late Medieval Sicily, (2003).
^Desmond Gregory (1988).Sicily: The Insecure Base: A History of the British Occupation of Sicily, 1806–1815. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 35.ISBN0-8386-3306-4.
^Metcalfe, Alex.Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily: Arabic Speakers and the End of Islam (2003).
^Gwynne-Timothy, John (1970).Quest for democracy: People and power in an age of upheaval, 1919 to the present. University of California Press. p. 41.ISBN0771037260.
^abThe best discussion of the fate of Sicilian Muslims can be found in Julie Taylor,Muslims in Medieval Italy: The Colony at Lucera (2003), but is also discussed in Alex Metcalfe,The Muslims of Medieval Italy (2009).
Abulafia, David.Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor, 1988.
Abulafia, David.The Two Italies: Economic Relations between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Northern Communes, Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Abulafia, David.The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms 1200–1500: The Struggle for Dominion, Longman, 1997. (a political history)
Alio, Jacqueline.Queens of Sicily 1061-1266: The Queens Consort, Regent and Regnant of the Norman-Swabian Era of the Kingdom of Sicily, Trinacria, 2018.
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