The Glories of Norman Sicily Betty Main, SRC The Norman Palace in Palermo, Sicily. As Rosicrucians, we are taught to be they would start a crusade to “rescue” tolerant of others’ views and beliefs. We southern Italy from the Byzantine Empire have brothers and sisters of like mind and the Greek Orthodox Church, and throughout the world, of every race and restore it to the Church of Rome. As they religion. The history of humankind has were few in number, they decided to return often demonstrated the worst human to Normandy, recruit more followers, aspects, but from time to time, in what and return the following year. Thus the seemed like a sea of barbarism, there Normans started to arrive in the region, appeared periods of calm and civilisation. which was to become the hunting ground The era we call the Dark Ages in Europe, for Norman knights and others anxious was not quite as “dark” as may be imagined. for land and booty. At first they arrived as There were some parts of the Western individuals and in small groups, but soon world where the light shone like a beacon. they came flooding in as mercenaries, to This is the story of one of them. indulge in warfare and brigandage. Their Viking ways had clearly not been entirely It all started in the year 1016, when forgotten. a group of Norman pilgrims visited the shrine of St. Michael on the Monte Robert Guiscard and Gargano in southern Italy. After the Roger de Hauteville “pilgrims” had surveyed the fertile lands One of them, Robert Guiscard, of Apulia lying spread out before them, having established his ascendancy over the promising boundless opportunities for south of Italy, acquired from the papacy, making their fortunes, they decided that the title of Duke of Naples, Apulia, Page 1 Calabria, and Sicily. The Papacy, caught helped Robert Guiscard to establish his between the Lombards and the German rule over southern Italy, fighting not only Holy Roman Empire to the north and the against the Byzantine forces, but also Byzantine Empire to the south, came to against dissident Norman and Lombard regard the Normans as guarantors of its barons. independence. Together they started the conquest of Sicily, but, after Robert had helped Roger to conquer Palermo, the Arab capital of Sicily, and Roger, in turn, had helped Robert to storm Bari, the Byzantine provincial capital on the Adriatic Sea, Robert remained on the mainland. This left Roger a free hand in Sicily. Roger recognised Robert as his overlord, and in return he was granted the title of Count of Sicily and Calabria. Prior to the Norman entrada into Sicily, the Arabs had occupied the island for two and a half centuries. It was divided into three mutually antagonistic emirates. Although the majority of the population was Greek, having been a part of the Byzantine Empire for centuries, the laws and administration were Islamic. Roger appreciated that occupying Sicily would be a challenge, as well as a chance to escape Robert Guiscard by Merry-Joseph Blondel. from Robert’s shadow. Whenever possible, he and his knights avoided military Robert Guiscard, though primarily a confrontation, unless they were sure of Norman knight, was a shrewd politician winning the battle. When they did engage and used his natural astuteness to achieve in operations, their discipline and military a concordat with Pope Nicholas II, tactics gave them the victory. Yet it was whereby, in return for receiving the title impossible to administer a country with of Duke of Apulia, he agreed to chase so few Normans. The terms under which the Saracen Arabs from Sicily and restore Roger accepted the surrender of Palermo Christianity to the island. For this purpose laid down the principles he was to adopt in he summoned his half-brother Roger de pacifying the rest of the island. Hauteville to join him from Normandy. There would be no reprisals, and he Contemporary records describe the would stop looting immediately. All Arab youth as being handsome, tall, and well lives and property would be respected. He proportioned, as well as being strong and sought their friendship and would ask only courageous in battle, yet always remaining for their allegiance and an annual tribute. friendly and cheerful. In return, he undertook not to interfere Roger arrived in Italy in 1056, a mere with the practice of the Muslim faith or Rosicrucian 10 years before another buccaneering the application of Islamic law. These Digest No. 2 Norman, William of Normandy, invaded terms applied to the conquest of the rest 2018 England. During his early years, Roger of the island, though that took him nearly Page 2 30 years to complete. The Arabs lost their the foundations of a multiracial polyglot independence, but for them it was the state, in which Norman, Greek, and Arab, beginning of an unprecedented order under a firmly centralised administration, such as they had never known before, followed their own cultural and religious under a strong central government, which traditions in freedom and concord. enabled them to develop their artistic and The result was that, when the “Great intellectual talents. Count” died in 1101, he had transformed Roger realised that the Muslims needed Sicily into a nation, heterogeneous in to be persuaded to voluntarily accept religion and language, but united in loyalty his regime, and to do so he had to treat to its Christian ruler. Sicily was well on the them with tolerance and understanding, way to becoming the most brilliant and thereby creating an atmosphere of internal prosperous state in the Mediterranean, if harmony and mutual respect. For this not in the whole of Europe. purpose he accepted the Arab bureaucracy Floreat Sicilia which existed on the island, consisting of His son Roger II (ruled 1101-1154) a mixture of Arabs and Greeks. He also was nine years old when he succeeded adopted many of their titles; the Christian as Count. His mother, a northern Italian governor of Palermo for instance, being from Liguria, acted as Regent for him. addressed as “Emir”, while his principal During his long minority he was educated minister, George of Antioch, a Greek, who by Greek and Arab tutors, who helped him was also the Admiral of his Navy, manned to develop the exotic side of his nature. by Greek crews, held the title of “Emir With dark eyes, hair and complexion, of Emirs.” Roger also established a crack his appearance was that of a southerner. force of Arab troops with Arab officers. He had grown up in the cosmopolitan By maintaining their traditional fighting atmosphere of tolerance and mutual methods, the corps provided an outlet for respect, so he was able to understand the military instincts of the Muslims, while the complex system of checks and giving them pride and participation in the balances on which the internal stability new Sicilian state. of his country depended. Unlike his Some mosques, which had originally forefathers, he disliked war and preferred been Christian, were reconverted, but to use diplomacy, possibly accompanied by others remained untouched. Islamic law financial inducements. By these means, he was administered by Emirs in local courts. was able to acquire the duchies of Apulia Arabic became an official language, along and Calabria, and so unite the south of with Latin, Greek, and Norman French. Italy into a single dominion. Where Greek Christians were resentful During a crisis in the Papal tenure, of these changes, he allowed them to when two Popes were elected at the same keep their local titles and also provided time, he first acquired the triple Dukedom material aid for the reconstruction of and then in 1128 was named King of their churches. While encouraging the Italy south of the Garigliano. By 1140, establishment of Latin cathedrals and he was able to depute two of his sons, abbeys, he himself helped to found Basilian Roger of Apulia and Alfonso of Capua, to monasteries and churches, using imported administer his mainland territories, while Byzantine craftsmen. Arab scientific and he remained at Palermo. King Roger II was artistic endeavours were encouraged, and able to establish a corpus of laws, many many who had fled to North Africa or of them borrowed from the codification Spain returned to the island. Thus he laid of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the Page 3 The interior of the Monreale Cathedral in Palermo, Sicily. sixth century. While making it clear that the Muslims and Normans. In the early days, existing laws of his subject peoples should before the arrival of Latin religious and continue in force, except where there civil immigrants, they prevented the was a direct clash with royal ordinances, Latins from being swamped. By neatly all Greeks, Arabs, Jews, Lombards, and counterbalancing the claims of the Latin Normans under his rule were to continue Church, they gave Roger a powerful to live according to the customs of their bargaining counter in his dealings with forebears. Rome. Roger adopted an almost mystical Sicilian-Norman Art view of the divinely-held power of the king. The law was the will of the Divine, During the twelfth century there was and the king was its ultimate interpreter. a flowering of Sicilian-Norman art, as The feudal system which prevailed on illustrated in their sacred buildings, which his mainland dominions belonged to were a fusion of Byzantine, Arab, and Western Europe; the civil service in the Norman design and construction. They Sicilian provinces was based on Arabic were actively encouraged by the clergy institutions, but the monarchy followed who, along with the Norman barons, were Byzantine traditions, many of which went responsible for commissioning them.