Roger III ( it, Ruggero III, scn, Ruggeru III; 1175 – 24 December 1193), of the

House of Hauteville The Hauteville ( it, Altavilla) was a Norman family originally of seigneurial rank from the Cotentin. The Hautevilles rose to prominence through their part in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. By 1130, one of their members, Roger II, was ma ...

, was the eldest son and heir of King

Tancred of Sicily Tancred ( it, Tancredi; 113820 February 1194) was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia (the eldest son of King Roger II) by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count o ...

and Queen Sibylla. He was made

Duke of Apulia The County of Apulia and Calabria (), later the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria (), was a Norman state founded by William of Hauteville in 1042 in the territories of Gargano, Capitanata, Apulia, Vulture, and most of Campania. It became a duchy when ...

(as Roger V), probably in 1189, shortly after his father's accession. In the summer of 1192 he was crowned co-king with his father. ''

Follari The follis (plural ''folles''; it, follaro, ar, فلس, Fels) was a type of coin in the Roman and Byzantine traditions. Roman coin In the past, the term ''follis'' was used to describe a large bronze Roman coin introduced in about 294 (the ...

'' were minted at

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

bearing both Tancred and Roger's names as kings.

Philip Grierson Philip Grierson, FBA (15 November 1910 – 15 January 2006) was a British historian and numismatist, emeritus professor of numismatics at Cambridge University and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College for over seventy years. During his long an ...

, Mark A. S. Blackburn and Lucia Travaini (eds.), ''Medieval European Coinage'', vol. 14: Italy (III) (South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia) ( Cambridge University Press, 1998), 79. In 1193, Tancred arranged for Roger to marry

Irene Angelina Irene Angelina ( el, ; c. 1181 – 27 August 1208) was a Byzantine princess and member of the Angelos dynasty and by her two marriages Queen of Sicily in 1193 and Queen of Germany from 1198 to 1208. Life Irene was born in Constantinople, the s ...

, daughter of the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Isaac II Angelos 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 ...

.Hubert Houben, ''Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler Between East and West'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002), 174. Roger died on 24 December 1193, upsetting his father's plans. Tancred quickly had Roger's younger brother,

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...

, crowned as co-king, but Tancred died on 20 February 1194. On 20 November 1194, the Emperor Henry VI entered

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

and on 25 December William was deposed. In 1197 Roger's widow, Irene, married Henry VI's brother, Duke

Philip of Swabia Philip of Swabia (February/March 1177 – 21 June 1208) was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Germany from 1198 until his assassination. The death of his older brother Emperor Henry VI in 1197 meant that the Hohenstaufen rule (whi ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roger 03 Of Sicily 1175 births 1193 deaths 12th-century Kings of Sicily Italo-Normans Hauteville family Sons of kings