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Medieval
Sicily
William II – 1166-1189 A.D.
Bronze Follaro 13mm (2.06 grams) Palermo mint
Reference: Spahr 118, 139, 28 (2), 32 (2), 199. 7 St.
Head of lion facing.
Kufic text.
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Kufic is the oldest
calligraphic
form of the various
Arabic
scripts
and consists of a modified form of the old
Nabataean script
. Kufic developed around the end of the 7th century in
Kufa, Iraq, from
which it takes its name, and other centres. Until about the 11th century it was
the main script used to copy Qur’ans. Professional copyists employed a
particular form of kufic for reproducing the earliest surviving copies of the
Qur’an, which were written on parchment and date from the 8th to 10th centuries.
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William II offering the
Monreale Cathedral
to the
Virgin Mary
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William II (1155 – 11 November 1189), called the Good, was
king of Sicily
from 1166 to 1189. William’s character is very 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
and in secret league with the
Lombard
cities he was able to defy the common enemy,
Frederick I Barbarossa
. In the
Divine Comedy
,
Dante
places William II in Paradise. He is also referred to in
Boccaccio
‘s
Decameron
(tale V.7).
Kingship
Regency of his mother
William was only eleven years old at the death of his father
William I
, when he was placed under the regency of his mother,
Margaret of Navarre
. Until the king was declared adult in 1171 the
government was controlled first by the chancellor
Stephen du Perche
(1166–1168), cousin of Margaret, and then by
Walter Ophamil
, archbishop of
Palermo
, and
Matthew of Ajello
, the vice-chancellor.
Marriage and alliances
In 1174 and 1175 William made treaties with
Genoa
and
Venice
and his marriage in February 1177 with
Joan
, daughter of
Henry II of England
and
Eleanor of Aquitaine
, marks his high position in European politics. This was
not his first attempted marriage, an earlier effort by
Bertrand II
, archbishop of
Trani
, to
negotiate the hand of a Byzantine princess yielded no fruit.
In July 1177, William sent a delegation of Archbishop
Romuald of Salerno
and Count
Roger of Andria
to sign the
Treaty of Venice
with the emperor. To secure the peace, he sanctioned the
marriage of his aunt
Constance
, daughter of
Roger II
, with Frederick’s son Henry, afterwards the emperor
Henry VI
, causing a general oath to be taken to her as his successor in case
of his death without heirs. This step, fatal to the
Norman kingdom
Monreale Cathedral
, built during William’s II reign. William and
his parents are buried there..
Wars with Egypt
and Greece
Unable to revive the
African dominion
, William directed his attack on
Ayyubid Egypt
, from which
Saladin
threatened the Latin
kingdom of Jerusalem
. In July 1174, 30,000 men were landed before
Alexandria
,
but Saladin
‘s
arrival forced the Sicilians to re-embark in disorder.[1]
A better prospect opened in the confusion in
Byzantine
affairs which followed the death of
Manuel Comnenus
(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
, the fleet (200 ships) sailed towards the same target capturing
on their way the
Ionian islands
of Corfu
, Cephalonia
, Ithaca
and
Zakynthos
.
In August
Thessalonica
fell to the joint attack
of the Sicilian fleet and army and was subsequently
sacked (7,000 Greeks died).
The troops then marched upon the capital, but the army of the emperor
Isaac Angelus
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
. His admiral
Margarito
, a naval genius equal to
George of Antioch
, with 60 vessels kept the eastern
Mediterranean
open for the
Franks
, and
forced the all-victorious Saladin to retire from before
Tripoli
in the spring of 1188.
Palermo in mourning for the death of William II, from the Liber
ad honorem Augusti by
Peter of Eboli
.
Death
In November 1189 William died at
Palermo
,
leaving no children. Though
Orderic Vitalis
records a (presumably short-lived) son in 1181:
Bohemond, Duke of Apulia
. William’s title of “the Good” is due perhaps less
to his character than to the cessation of internal troubles in his reign.
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