fwo_880640 - SICILE - ROYAUME DE SICILE - GUILLAUME II LE BON Follaro large ou triple follaro n.d. Messine

SICILY - KINGDOM OF SICILY - WILLIAM II THE GOOD

(1166-1189)

The Normans drove out the Muslims who had occupied Sicily since 827. In 1091, after thirty years of fighting, Roger I, brother of Robert Guiscard, became master of the island. In 1130, his son, Roger II (1130-1154), had himself proclaimed king of Sicily, Apulia and Calabria. On the death of Roger II, his son-in-law William I inherited the kingdom. The latter died in 1166 leaving Sicily to his son William II. The kings of Sicily were allied with the party of the Guelphs and opposed the Holy Roman Empire until 1186, the year Constance (widow of William I and daughter of Roger I) married Emperor Henry VI. William II died three years later and the Sicilians preferred to leave Sicily to Tancred, Count of Lecce.