NEH Project Outline
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NEH Project Outline Roger II of Sicily: Pursuits of Authority and Identity in the Twelfth-Century Mediterranean World A Book Project in Progress Dawn Marie Hayes Associate Professor of European History Montclair State University [email protected] Rationale and Scope This book will join a growing number of much needed English-language studies on the history of Norman Sicily and Southern Italy (c. 1061 - 1194). It will draw on sources of political, social, and religious history as well as on works of art history to help its audience better understand a complex and relatively neglected subfield of medieval history. Its value, though, is not just in the light it will shed on the history of the late eleventh- and twelfth-century Mezzogiorno; given the region’s interconnectedness with states in the greater Mediterranean, it will help students and scholars learn about geographically distant civilizations as well. Simply put, it will contribute to a developing conversation among scholars that more firmly situates Sicily and Southern Italy - often seen as a backwater region characterized by economic decline - in the middle of the vibrant and complex Mediterranean world in which it played an essential role. Drawing attention to the challenges of cultivating a fledgling maritime state in a world that prized precedent and tradition, this study will examine various strategies used by early Norman rulers - but most especially Roger II (Count of Sicily and Calabria from 1105-1128, Duke of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily from 1128-1130, and King of Sicily and Southern Italy from 1130-1154) - to establish legitimacy and security in their new home from approximately 1071 to the end of Roger’s reign. While acknowledging that the Normans assimilated to their new geographic and cultural contexts, it will also demonstrate that they retained a strong western focus. Behind the mélange that was the early Norman state were some very occidental interests and a number of the elements of Norman assimilation, as a few scholars have recently argued, were very likely adopted simply to help cultivate their authority in a land of enormous diversity. Indeed, as the Normans worked to install themselves as legitimate rulers, they drew on various sources of authority, some indigenous and others from farther afield. Part I will explore how Roger II’s three marriages tied him to the legacy of Alfonso VI of León-Castile, a protagonist of Spain’s Reconquista famed for recapturing Toledo in 1085, as well as to members of the powerful House of Burgundy and the House of Rethel, whose scions ruled the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the twelfth century. The latter two brides also placed Roger in the family trees of storied kings and emperors such as Hugh Capet and Charlemagne, partially compensating for his own lack of illustrious lineage. Part II, on the other hand, will look at how early Norman rulers such as Robert Guiscard and his son, Bohemond of Antioch, harnessed the potential in a preexisting cult to St. Nicholas in Bari to address their own concerns as well as those of their subjects and travelers who visited from more distant lands. Roger II would also demonstrate a strong devotion to the saint, though likely for different reasons as he dealt with the challenges of ruling non- contiguous lands separated by an unpredictable sea. Part III will complete the study by looking both eastward and westward as it closely examines various elements of what is perhaps the best-known mosaic of the Norman period, the image of Roger II being crowned by Christ in the Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio. It will argue that the work is encoded with the king’s aspirations as he worked to forge a closer alliance with France while he contemplated a coup against the Byzantine Empire, the very civilization the mosaic appears to celebrate. Seemingly straightforward cultural residue from the kingdom – in this case, art that seems to be simple reflections of Byzantine models - must be closely examined for departures from the standards of the day because it is often here where the evidence speaks most powerfully. As numerous scholars have documented, the Normans in Sicily and southern Italy did, indeed, assimilate the local cultures in numerous ways. But they also maintained western European political, religious and cultural identities at the same time. Table of Contents Introduction I. Pursuit of the Past: The Marriage Ties of Roger II Chapter One Identity and Aspiration on Europe's Margins in Early Twelfth- Century Europe: The Legacy of Alfonso VI of León-Castile As a ruler of an emerging political entity who could make no legitimate dynastic claim to power, Roger II (c. 1095-1154), Sicily’s first king, faced considerable challenges. In addition to being considered a parvenu by a number of European rulers, he headed a state that lacked a common religion, race or even history to help unite it. As a result, it was especially important for him to cultivate numerous identities and tap into various sources of established authority to help support the title he inherited as well as the ranks he would later attain through statecraft and conquest. Simply put, Roger set out for himself an ambitious political program that would build on the considerable political and territorial gains made by his father and his uncle before him. But it was also one that needed significant support from others. This chapter will explore the relationship between Roger and the Leónese-Castilian monarchy, a dynasty with which he associated himself when he married his first wife, Elvira, around 1117. Elvira was the daughter of Alfonso VI, King of León-Castile, who ruled the reunited kingdom as of 1072 and died in 1109. The choice, I suspect, was suggestive of Roger’s (and perhaps his parents’) concerns. Alfonso VI was a ruler with whom Roger could identify. Like his father- in-law, Roger headed a nascent kingdom comprised of disparate elements that required a considerable amount of political skill to rule. In addition, his realm – like Alfonso’s – was at the edges of Christian Europe and included significant numbers of Muslims; each was challenged to maintain political and religious balance in an age of Reconquista and Crusade. Furthermore, both men had a desire to cultivate stronger relationships with western European powers, especially France, as well as to privilege Latin Christianity in their lands. Roger and Elvira’s marriage must be understood within this context. By uniting himself with the Spanish princess, Roger associated himself with a legacy that would be similar to his own. It is this chapter on which I worked while in Barcelona, investigating additional primary and secondary sources while sharing ideas with Hispanists, an opportunity for which I am enormously grateful as my own research to date is far afield of Spain. The work I did in Barcelona has made me come to realize in a way that I had not previously that Roger’s ambitions were Mediterranean-wide. Spanish connections as well as lands were westernmost objects of desire for a ruler who had his sights set on many other locations in the region. Chapter Two A Legacy of his Own: A Widower Looks Westward . Again This chapter will continue the theme of marriage as a strategy to forge connections to France which, as we will see again in Chapter Five, was a region of intense interest for Roger II, and possibly to the Kingdom of Jerusalem as well. After his first wife, Elvira, died in 1135, Roger remained a widower, presumably confident that upon his death power would transfer to one of his five legitimate sons. However, this would not be. By May of 1149, four of those sons predeceased him, leaving William alone. But according to one chronicler of the period, Roger’s surviving son may have showed little promise. Soon after, perhaps by the end of the same year, the king married again after having remained a widower for some 14 years. The wife he chose came from Burgundy, the very house from which his former father-in- law had taken a number of his wives. Through this marriage, Roger not only associated himself with a powerful family. He married into a cadet branch of the Capetian Dynasty. Unfortunately, Roger’s marriage to Sybil would be short lived and would produce no surviving heirs. By 1151, he was married to Beatrice of Rethel, a woman who could claim through her mother, Beatrix of Namur, descent from Charlemagne himself. It should also be noted that the marriage also tied Roger to the reigning Queen of Jerusalem as Beatrice was the first cousin once removed of Melisende of Rethel. Furthermore, Roger entered the match at a time when Melisende herself was in a struggle with her son, Baldwin III, over the throne of Jerusalem. That Baldwin was or would soon be in negotiations for the hand of Theodora Comnena, niece of the reigning Emperor of Byzantium, adds to the intrigue as Roger was engaged in hostilities against the Empire around the same time, an issue that will be taken up more fully in Chapter Six. II. Preoccupations of the Present: St. Nicholas of Myra/Bari in Norman Sicily and Southern Italy Chapter Three The Cult of St. Nicholas of Myra in Norman Bari, c. 1071 – c. 1111 Drawing on research that will soon appear in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, this chapter will investigate the cult of St. Nicholas of Myra in later eleventh-century Bari, focusing on its importance to the new Norman rulers in southern Italy as well as to their subjects. It argues that although an earlier cult to the saint had existed in the region, Nicholas became an especially popular intercessor during the decades immediately following the Norman conquest.