Genealogy Richard Bush » Roger III King of Sicily Duke of Apulia (1175-1193)

Personal data Roger III King of Sicily Duke of Apulia 

• Alternative names: King Roger I (also known as / alias), Roger De Hautville
• He was born in the year 1175.

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years old (0) when child (Muriel de Hautville) died (??-??-1119).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years old (0) when child (Emma de Hautville) died (??-??-1120).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years (0) when child (Matilda de Hautville) was born (??-??-1062).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years old (0) when child (Simon de Hautville) died (??-09-1105).

  Attention: Age at marriage (??-??-1077) below 16 years (0).

  Attention: Age at marriage (??-??-1087) below 16 years (0).

  Attention: Age at marriage (??-??-1062) below 16 years (0).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years old (0) when child (Judith de Hautville) died (??-??-1136).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years old (0) when child (Adelisa de Hautville) died (??-??-1096).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years old (0) when child (King William The Bad) died (??-??-1166).

• Title: King
• He died in the year 1193, he was 18 years old.
• A child of Tancred De Hauteville of Lecce King of Napes And Sicily and Sybille d'acerra

Household of Roger III King of Sicily Duke of Apulia

(1) He is married to Eremburga of Mortain.

They got married in the year 1077.

Child(ren):

1. King of Sicily Roger  ± 1095-± 1130 
2. Matilda de Hautville  1062-± 1094
3. Violante de Hautville  
4. Flandina de Hautville  
5. Judith de Hautville  ????-1136
6. Muriel de Hautville  ????-1119
7. Constance de Hautville  
8. Felicia de Hautville  
9. Mauger Count of Troina  

(2) He is married to Adelaide del Vasto.

They got married in the year 1087.

Child(ren):

1. King William The Bad  ± 1131-1166 
2. King of Sicily Roger  ± 1095-± 1130 
3. Simon de Hautville  ± 1092-1105
4. Maximilla de Hautville  

(3) He is married to Judith d'évreux.

They got married in the year 1062.

Child(ren):

1. Matilda de Hautville  1062-± 1094
2. Adelisa de Hautville  ± 1064-1096
3. Emma de Hautville  ± 1066-1120

(4) He had a relationship with Queen Sybil d' Aquine.

Child(ren):

1. Count Roger Tancreed Dehauteville  1193-1297 
2. Aaron Fitz Roger  1194-1270

Child(ren):

1. Count Roger Tancreed Dehauteville  1193-1297 

Notes about Roger III King of Sicily Duke of Apulia

Roger I (c. 1040[1] - 22 June 1101), nicknamed Roger Bosso and The Great Count, was a Norman nobleman who became the first Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was a member of the House of Hauteville, and his descendants in the male line continued to rule Sicily down to 1194.

Roger was born in Normandy, and came to southern Italy as a young man in 1057. He participated in several military expeditions against the Emirate of Sicily beginning in 1061. He was invested with part of Sicily and the title of count by his brother, Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, in 1071.[2] By 1090, he had conquered the entire island. In 1091, he conquered Malta. The state he created was merged with the Duchy of Apulia in 1127 and became the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130.

Contents
1Conquest of Calabria and Sicily
2Conquest of Malta
3Rule of Sicily
4Death and succession
5Family
6Ancestry
7References
8Sources
9Further reading
Conquest of Calabria and Sicily
Roger was the youngest son of Tancred of Hauteville by his second wife Fredisenda.[3] Roger arrived in Southern Italy in the summer of 1057.[4] The Benedictine monk, Goffredo Malaterra, who compares Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger to "Joseph and Benjamin of old," said of Roger:

He was a youth of the greatest beauty, of lofty stature, of graceful shape, most eloquent in speech and cool in counsel. He was far-seeing in arranging all his actions, pleasant and merry all with men; strong and brave, and furious in battle."[5]

In 1057 he shared the conquest of nearly all of Calabria excepting Reggio with his brother Robert.[4] For a time Roger lived like a bandit in his castle of Scalea, near Cosenza.[4] In a treaty of 1062, the brothers divided the conquest so that each was to have half of every castle and town in Calabria.[6] It was about this same time that Roger married Judith d'Évreux.

Roger I of Sicily at the Battle of Cerami (1063), in which he was victorious against 35,000 Muslims
Roger had first thought of conquering Sicily when he and his brother conquered Calabria.[7] At the time, it was ruled by Muslims and the population was mostly Greek Byzantine Christians. The Arab princes had become all but independent of the sultan of Tunis. In May 1061 the brothers crossed from Reggio and captured Messina.[7] In June 1063, Roger defeated a Muslim army at the Battle of Cerami.[8] After they took Palermo in January 1072, Robert Guiscard, as suzerain, invested Roger as Count of Sicily.[9] Robert retained Palermo, half of Messina, and the north-east portion (the Val Demone).[9] Not till 1085 was Roger able to undertake a systematic conquest.

In March 1086 Syracuse surrendered, and when in February 1091 Noto yielded, the conquest of Sicily was complete.[10] Much of Robert's success had been due to Roger's support. Similarly, when the leadership of the Hautevilles passed to Roger, he supported his nephew Duke Roger against Bohemund I of Antioch, Lando IV of Capua, and other rebels. In return for his uncle's aid against Bohemund and the rebels, the duke Roger surrendered his share in the castles of Calabria to his uncle in 1085, and in 1091 his inheritance in Palermo.

Roger's rule in Sicily became more absolute than that of Robert Guiscard's in Italy. In addition, due to immigration by Lombards and Normans, Latin Christianity gradually replaced that of the Greek Byzantine tradition. At the enfeoffments of 1072 and 1092, no great undivided fiefs were created. The mixed Norman, French and Italian vassals all owed their benefices to the count. No feudal revolt of importance arose against Roger.

Conquest of Malta
Main article: Norman invasion of Malta
In 1091 Roger, in order to avoid an attack from North Africa, set sail with a fleet to conquer Malta. His ship reached the island before the rest. On landing, the few defenders the Normans encountered retreated and the following day Roger marched to the capital Mdina. Terms were discussed with the local qadi. It was agreed that the islands would become tributaries of the count himself and that the qadi should continue to administer the islands. With the treaty many Greek and other Christian prisoners were released, who chanted to Roger the Kyrie eleison. He left the islands with many who wished to join him and so many were on his ship that it nearly sank, according to Geoffrey Malaterra.[11] The invasion was romanticized in later centuries, and legends arose that the Count gave the Maltese their red and white flag by cutting a part of his banner.[12] Mass is said once a year in remembrance of the Count at the Cathedral of Mdina, as a recognition for the Count's role in liberating Maltese Christians from Muslim dominance and rule.[citation needed]

Rule of Sicily

Roger I as he appears on a trifollaro minted at Mileto
Politically supreme, the count also became master of the insular church. The Papacy, favouring a prince who had recovered Sicily from Greeks and Muslims, in 1098 granted Roger and his heirs the Apostolic Legateship of the island. Roger created new Latin bishoprics at Syracuse, Girgenti and elsewhere, nominating the bishops personally, while he turned the archbishopric of Palermo into a Catholic see. Of these bishops and other important clergy positions, a minority were French, and of those even fewer were Norman. Of the five new sees he founded, one bishop was Norman and three others were from other parts of France.[13] He practiced general toleration towards Arabs and Greeks, even sponsoring the construction of over twelve Greek monasteries in the Val Demone region.[14] In the cities, the Muslims, who had generally secured such rights in their terms of surrender, retained their mosques, their qadis, and freedom of trade; in the country, however, they became serfs. Roger drew the mass of his infantry from the Muslims; Saint Anselm, visiting him at the siege of Capua, 1098, found "the brown tents of the Arabs innumerable". Nevertheless, the Latin element began to prevail, as Lombards and other Italians flocked to the island in the wake of the conquest, and the conquest of Sicily proved decisive in the steady decline of Muslim power in the western Mediterranean from this time.[citation needed]

Death and succession
Roger I died on 22 of June 1101 in Mileto. Upon Roger's death, his son, Simon of Hauteville, became the Count of Sicily, with his mother, Adelaide del Vasto, acting as his regent. On 28 September 1105, at the age of 12, Simon died, and the title of count passed to his younger brother, Roger II of Sicily, with Adelaide continuing on as regent, being the mother of Roger II as well.[15]

Family

Coat of Arms of Roger I of Sicily
Roger's eldest son, Jordan, predeceased him. Roger's second son, Geoffrey, possibly illegitimate, was a leper with no chance of inheriting.

Roger's first marriage took place in 1062, to Judith d'Évreux.[16] She died in 1076, leaving daughters:

A daughter, married Hugh of Jarzé (died 1075/6), the first count of Paternò
Matilda (1062 - before 1094), wife of Robert, Count of Eu and Raymond IV of Toulouse[17]
Adelisa (died 1096), married in 1083 to Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo
Emma (died 1120), briefly engaged to Philip I of France; married firstly William VI of Auvergne and secondly Rudolf of Montescaglioso.
In 1077, Roger married a second time, to Eremburga of Mortain,[18] and their children were:

Mauger, Count of Troina
Matilda, wife of Ranulf II, Count of Alife
Muriel (died 1119), married Josbert de Lucy
Constance
Felicia, wife of Coloman, King of Hungary
Violante, married Robert, son of Robert I of Burgundy
Flandina, married Henry del Vasto
Judith (died 1136), married Robert I of Bassunvilla
Roger's last wife was Adelaide del Vasto, a sister of aforementioned Henry. They married in 1087. Roger and Adelaide's children were:

Simon of Sicily
Roger II of Sicily
Maximilla (Matilda), wife of Conrad II of Italy[19]
Roger's other daughter called Matilda married Guigues III, Count of Albon.

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Roger III King of Sicily Duke of Apulia?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Roger III King of Sicily Duke of Apulia

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children