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
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
and in secret league with the
Lombard cities, he was able to defy the common enemy,
Frederick Barbarossa.
In the ''
Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...
'',
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
places William II in Paradise. He is also referred to in
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...
's ''
Decameron
''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...
'' (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
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty ...
dynasty his reign was characterised as a golden age of peace and justice. His numeral is contemporary and he himself used it.
Kingship
Regency of his mother
William was born in Palermo to
William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
and
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 ...
. At the age of twelve his father died, and he was placed under the regency of his mother. In 1171 he was declared adult and until then the government was controlled first by the chancellor
Stephen du Perche (1166–1168), cousin of Margaret, and then by
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 minist ...
, archbishop of
Palermo, and
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 th ...
, the vice-chancellor.
In 1168, du Perche was overthrown by a coup, while the revolts claimed that William was murdered and du Perche planned to have his brother marry
Constance, aunt of William who was confined to
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 ...
as a nun from childhood due to a prediction that "her marriage would destroy Sicily", to claim the throne, despite the existence of
Henry, Prince of Capua brother of William.
Marriage and alliances
An effort by
Bertrand II, archbishop of
Trani
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 fir ...
, to negotiate the hand of Byzantine Princess
Maria
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
* 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
* Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
for William yielded no fruit and led to his breaking up with Byzantine Emperor
Manuel I Comnenus
Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine empero ...
in 1172.
In the same year the death of Henry, Prince of Capua marked a potential succession crisis: it was said that William II had Constance, the last legitimate heir to the throne, appointed heir and sworn fealty in 1174, though she remained confined in her monastery.
In 1174 and 1175 William made treaties with
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
and his marriage in February 1177 with
Joan Joan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters
*:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine
* Joan (surname)
Weather events
*Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multip ...
, daughter of King
Henry II of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...
and Duchess
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1 ...
, marks his high position in European politics.
Although Joan produced no surviving heir, William showed no intention to annul the marriage.
In July 1177, William sent a delegation of Archbishop
Romuald II of Salerno and Count
Roger of Andria to sign the
Treaty of Venice
The Treaty or Peace of Venice, 1177, was a peace treaty between the papacy and its allies, the north Italian city-states of the Lombard League, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily also took part in negotiations and ...
with the Emperor. In 1184, he released 30-year-old Constance from convent, engaged her to the Emperor's son, the future
Emperor Henry VI
Henry VI (German: ''Heinrich VI.''; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sic ...
to secure the peace, and married her off on January 1186, causing a general oath to be taken to her as his
heir presumptive
An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question.
...
. This step, of great consequence to the Norman realm, was possibly taken that William might devote himself to foreign conquests,
or aiming to prevent
Tancred, Count of Lecce, an illegitimate cousin of William, to claim the throne.
[''Gisleberti chronicon Hanoniense'', c. 33, ed. L. Vanderkindere, Bruxelles 1904, 66.]
Wars with Egypt and Byzantine Empire
Unable to revive the
African dominion, William directed his attack on
Ayyubid Egypt, from which
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
threatened the Latin
kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...
. In July 1174, 30,000 men were landed before
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
, but
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
's arrival forced the Sicilians to re-embark in disorder. A better prospect opened in the confusion in
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
affairs which followed the death of
Manuel Comnenus
Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor ...
(1180), and William took up the old design and feud against the Byzantine Empire.
Dyrrhachium was captured (11 June 1185). Afterwards while the army (allegedly 80,000 men including 5,000 knights) marched upon
Thessalonica
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, the fleet (200 ships) sailed towards the same target capturing on their way the
Ionian islands of
Corfu,
Cephalonia,
Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
and
Zakynthos
Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; el, Ζάκυνθος, Zákynthos ; it, Zacinto ) or Zante (, , ; el, Τζάντε, Tzánte ; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Z ...
. In August 1185,
Thessalonica
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
fell to the joint attack of the Sicilian fleet and army and was subsequently sacked.
The troops then marched upon the capital, but the army of the emperor
Isaac Angelus
Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204.
His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a ...
, under the general
Alexios Branas
Alexios (or Alexius) Branas or Vranas ( el, ) (died 1187) was a Byzantine nobleman, attempted usurper, and the last Byzantine military leader of the 12th century to gain a notable success against a foreign enemy.
Background
Alexios Branas was a ...
,
defeated the invaders on the banks of the
Strymon (7 November 1185). Thessalonica was at once abandoned and in 1189 William made peace with Isaac, abandoning all the conquests. He was now planning to induce the crusading armies of the West to pass through his territories, and seemed about to play a leading part in the
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
. His admiral
Margarito, a naval genius equal to
George of Antioch, with 60 vessels kept the eastern
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
open for the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
, and forced the strong Saladin to retire from before
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
in the spring of 1188.
Death
In November 1189 William died at
Palermo, leaving no children,
although
Robert of Torigni
Robert of Torigni (also known as Roburtus de Monte) (c. 1110–1186) was a Norman monk, prior, abbot and twelfth century chronicler.
Religious life
Robert was born at Torigni-sur-Vire, Normandy c. 1110 most probably to an aristocratic family but ...
records a short-lived son in 1181: Bohemond, who was named Duke of Apulia.
After his death Norman officials led by Matthew of Ajello supported Tancred to succeed him, instead of Constance, in order to avoid German rule.
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*Matthew, Donald. ''The Norman Kingdom of Sicily''.
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
: 1992.
{{DEFAULTSORT:William 02 of Sicily
1153 births
1189 deaths
12th-century Kings of Sicily
Italo-Normans
Medieval child rulers
Burials at Monreale Cathedral
Hauteville family
People of the Byzantine–Norman wars
Nobility from Palermo
Sicilian people of Norman descent
Sons of kings
Counts of Malta