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William II Of Sicily
William II (December 115311 November 1189), called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. From surviving sources William's character is indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy. Champion of the papacy and in secret league with the Lombard cities, he was able to defy the common enemy, Frederick Barbarossa. In the ''Divine Comedy'', Dante places William II in Paradise. He is also referred to in Boccaccio's ''Decameron'' (tale IV.4, where he reportedly has two children, and tale V.7). William was nicknamed "the Good" only in the decades following his death. It is due less to his character than to the cessation of the internal troubles that plagued his father's reign and the wars that erupted under his successor. Under the Staufer dynasty his reign was characterised as a golden age of peace and justice. His numer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Of Sicily
The monarchs of Sicily ruled from the establishment of the County of Sicily in 1071 until the "perfect fusion" in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816. The origins of the Sicilian monarchy lie in the Norman conquest of southern Italy which occurred between the 11th and 12th century. Sicily, which was ruled as an Islamic emirate for at least two centuries, was invaded in 1071 by Norman House of Hauteville, who conquered Palermo and established a feudal county. The House of Hauteville completed their conquest of Sicily in 1091. In 1130, the County of Sicily and the County of Apulia, ruled by different branches of the House of Hauteville, merged as the Kingdom of Sicily, and Count Roger II was crowned king by Antipope Anacletus II. In 1282, after the Sicilian Vespers, the kingdom split into separate states: the properly named "Ultra Sicily" (''Siciliae ultra Pharum'', Latin for "Sicily over the Strait") and "Hither Sicily" (''Siciliae citra'', commonly called "the Kingdom of Napl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ''Commedia'') and later christened by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante is known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at a time when most poetry was written in Latin, which was accessible only to the most educated readers. His ''De vulgari eloquentia'' (''On Eloquence in the Vernacular'') was one of the first scholarly defenses of the vernacular. His use of the Florentine dialect for works such as '' The New Life'' (1295) and ''Divine Comedy'' helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language. His work set a precedent that important Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trani, Apulia
Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the first time in the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 13th-century copy of an ancient Roman itinerary. The name, also spelled ''Tirenum'', was that of the Greek hero Diomedes. The city was later occupied by the Lombards and the Byzantines. First certain news of an urban settlement in Trani, however, trace back only to the 9th century. The most flourishing age of Trani was the 11th century, when it became an episcopal see in place of Canosa, destroyed by the Saracens. Its port, well placed for the Crusades, then developed greatly, becoming the most important on the Adriatic Sea. In the year 1063 Trani issued the ''Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris'', which is "the oldest surviving maritime law code of the Latin West".Paul Oldfield, ''City and Community in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry, Prince Of Capua
Henry (''Arricus'' or ''Arrico'') (1160–1172) was the youngest and second surviving son of William I of Sicily by Margaret of Navarre. By his father's will he succeeded to the title Prince of Capua, an appanage to the throne, while his brother William succeeded to the throne. Henry's coronation as prince was postponed from the death of his father (1166). Henry was present with William at Taranto, where the young king awaited his Greek bride. They planned to return via Capua and there invest Henry with his principality, but not far off from the town, Henry came down with a high fever. He was hurried to Salerno and thence to Palermo, but died within the month. According to legend, he was betrothed to a daughter of Malcolm IV of Scotland on his deathbed, but this is false. Malcolm had no issue. He was originally buried in the chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene, but was moved by his brother to Monreale, the final resting place of most of his family. The death of Henry made his aunt P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santissimo Salvatore, Palermo
The Church of Most Holy Saviour (Italian: Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore) is a Baroque-style, Roman Catholic church located on #396 of the ancient main street of the Palermo, the Cassaro, presently Via Vittorio Emanuele, in the ancient quarter of the Albergaria of the city of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy. History This site for the present church was formerly the location of a Basilian monastery and church dedicated to the Saviour, founded in 1072 by the Norman Robert Guiscard. The church and monastery continued having royal patronage under the Swabian rule. It was said that Constance, Queen of Sicily (1154-1198) had been confined to the church as a nun since childhood, due to the prediction that "her marriage would destroy Sicily" before 30, when she was eventually engaged for political reasons. In 1501, the monastery was converted to the Latin Rite. In 1528, a new church was rebuilt with three naves; it was repositioned in an opposite orientation to the former building. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constance, Queen Of Sicily
Constance I ( it, Costanza; 2 November 1154 – 27 November 1198) was reigning Queen of Sicily from 1194–98, jointly with her spouse from 1194 to 1197, and with her infant son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1198, as the heiress of the Norman kings of Sicily. She was also Holy Roman Empress and later Dowager by marriage to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. When she was young, as the sole heir to the throne of Sicily, she didn't marry until she was 30 because of an ominous prophecy; shortly after becoming empress she was involved in the succession war against her illegitimate nephew King Tancred of Sicily for the Sicilian throne, during which, rarely for an empress, she was captured during such an offensive campaign, though finally without danger she escaped. In the history of Holy Roman Empire only two empresses had ever been captured, the other being her mother-in-law Empress Beatrice. Shortly before ascending the Sicilian throne, at the advanced age of 40, she gave bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Of Ajello
Matthew of Ajello ( it, Matteo d'Aiello) was a high-ranking member of the Norman court of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century. His brother John was a bishop. Career He first appears as the notary of the Admiral Maio of Bari who drew up the Treaty of Benevento of 1156. He rose to prominence in the next reign, that of William II of Sicily, becoming first grand protonotary and then chancellor. Maio groomed Matthew to be his successor and, it was alleged, even used him to get permission from Pope Alexander III in Rome for Maio to succeed William I in 1159. On 10 November 1160, Matthew warned Maio of an impending assassination attempt, but to no avail. While Matthew escaped, Maio was killed by Matthew Bonnellus. In 1162, Matthew interceded to prevent the William I from sacking Salerno. On William's death, he became foremost among the advisors of the queen regent, Margaret of Navarre. After the rebellions of the later years of William's reign, Matthew compiled from memor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Ophamil
Walter Ophamil or Offamil ( fl. 1160–1191), italianised as Gualtiero Offamiglio or Offamilio from Latin ''Ophamilius'', was the archdeacon of Cefalù, dean of Agrigento, and archbishop of Palermo (1168–1191), called "''il primo ministro''", the first minister of the crown. He came to Sicily with Peter of Blois and Stephen du Perche at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily and Margaret. His mother was Bona, a patron of the Abbey of Cluny and a ''devota et fidelis nostra'' of the king in 1172. His father is unknown. From his name he was long thought to be an Englishman ("Walter of the Mill") but this interpretation is now rejected in favour of ''ophamilius'' referring to Walter as William II's ''protofamiliaris'', the senior confidant of the king in his royal household, the '' familiaris regis''. Biography Walter's first appearance in the historical record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Du Perche
Stephen du Perche (1137 or 1138 – 1169) was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily (1166–68) and Archbishop of Palermo (1167–68) during the early regency of his cousin, the queen dowager Margaret of Navarre (1166–71). Stephen is described by the contemporary chronicler Hugo Falcandus as "a son of the count of Perche", Rotrou III. He was a young man when he entered politics, born at the earliest in 1137 or 1138. He may have been named after King Stephen of England, at the time ruling the Duchy of Normandy. Arrival in Italy In 1166, Margaret appealed to her other cousin, Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, to send her a family member to aid and support her in government. Coincidentally, Stephen was at that moment preparing to go on crusade to the Holy Land and so decided to visit Palermo, the capital of Sicily, for a few months. There he ended up staying for two years. He was very young at the time, described as ''puer'' and ''adolescens'' by William of Tyre, and may have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Of Navarre
Margaret of Navarre (french: Marguerite, es, Margarita, it, Margherita) (c. 1135 – 12 August 1183) was Queen of Sicily as the wife of William I (1154–1166) and the regent during the minority of her son, William II. Queen consort Margaret was the daughter of King García Ramírez of Navarre and Marguerite de l'Aigle. She was married at a young age to William I of Sicily, in 1149, the fourth son of Roger II of Sicily. According to the Palermitan archivist Isidoro La Lumia, she was, in her later years, ''bella ancora, superba, leggiera'' ("still beautiful, proud, light"). During the reign of her husband, Margaret was largely ignored by William who spent much of his time away from court - often frequenting his many personal harems. However, she is considered to have been a stronger, more apt administrator than her husband, and several times convinced him to act where he was determined to be passive. She worked closely with Maio of Bari, the king's '' ammiratus ammiratorum'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kufic
Kufic script () is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts. It developed from the Arabic alphabet in the city of Kufa, from which its name is derived. Kufic script is characterized by angular, rectilinear letterforms and its horizontal orientation. There are many different versions of Kufic script, such as square Kufic, floriated Kufic, knotted Kufic, and others. History Origin of the Kufic script Calligraphers in the early Islamic period used a variety of methods to transcribe Qur’an manuscripts. Arabic calligraphy became one of the most important branches of Islamic Art. Calligraphers came out with the new style of writing called Kufic. Kufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts. The name of the script derives from Kufa, a city in southern Iraq which was considere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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