The wind of the North- The Norman penetrated in southern Italy to the beginning of the XI century. It is not certain as and because has arrived you; you/they were probably pushed by the desire of independence by the Byzantines and by the rebellious longobardis to the Greek. Known for the spirit of adventure, the courage and the ability that showed in war, the Norman ones got theirs first Melfis victory; this conquest opened to them the road toward Puglia and the Calabria.Tra the lines of these soldiers, for the more mercenaries of profession there were the eleven brothers Altavilla with his/her own followers. Among these there was said Roberto the
Guiscardo, fearless ambitious and warlike man: the "taller than the tallest" of the Altavillas. Against the power of the papacy, Roberto tried to effect an ambitious plan that king of a great state saw him/it in southern Italy. To open the road toward Sicily, the Guiscardo it was allied with pope Leone IX giving up Benevento, previously conquered. In 1059 it undersigned the accord of Melfi with pope Nicolò II getting, besides, the investiture as duke of Puglia and Calabria, with the obligation to recognize his vassal. In this way the pope vindicated the right of feudal dominion on Sicily and Guiscardo disowned the authority
religious of Constantinople.
In the 1061 Roger, brother of Roberto, disembarked in Sicily to subdue it: only three years after the whole part north-oriental some island had become Norman. In 1071 Palermo was besieged, that succeeded to withstand for about six months; the inhabitants of this city were forced to pay a tribute in exchange for a great administrative autonomy and of the liberty of culto.Only in 1088 was conquered later also Castrogiovanni and three years Known, last rampart of the
Moslem Sicily. The formed Regnum, model was considered without equal among the European states of that centuries: one Norman dynasty that
sank its roots in northern France, had succeeded, in brief once relatively, to govern cultures among them very different; Latin, Greek, Hebrews and Saracens shared, in the respect of the religions and the traditions, a ground common second the Norman administration. Account of the strength of the traditions making , the count Roger knew her to exploit with ability getting a success common to few sovereign.
It's true also that to the time of the Norman conquest Sicily was already a defeated country and the winners were also facilitated by the fact that they didn't have to recognize rights and duties to the defeated ones. The art and the Arab-Norman architecture were, for everything the 1100, a vivacious cultural phenomenon. "Jobs in wood and mosaics, - Finley, Mack Smith and Duggan write shortly history of Sicily - coins and suits, sculpture and literature show as a heterogeneity and a mixture of styluses they are able in effects to become an autonomous style. The same happened with the architecture. With his five red domes, St. Giovanni of the Hermits seems so much a mosque how much a Christian church. The church note as the Martorana (the admiral's S. Maria) it had around the base of the dome an Arabic registration of a Greek hymn. The Chapel Roger's Palatina a Palermo ..with a stupendous painted Arabic ceiling, the dome Byzantine ..i Greek mosaics…" Roger also intervened in religious field modifying the liturgy: it introduced the liturgy gallicana and it named in Palermo a Latin archbishop, definite besides the number of the dioceses and also the bishops' choice.
It's true also that to the time of the Norman conquest Sicily was already a defeated country and the winners were also facilitated by the fact that they didn't have to recognize rights and duties to the defeated ones. The art and the Arab-Norman architecture were, for everything the 1100, a vivacious cultural phenomenon. "Jobs in wood and mosaics, - Finley, Mack Smith and Duggan write shortly history of Sicily - coins and suits, sculpture and literature show as a heterogeneity and a mixture of styluses they are able in effects to become an autonomous style. The same happened with the architecture. With his five red domes, St. Giovanni of the Hermits seems so much a mosque how much a Christian church. The church note as the Martorana (the admiral's S. Maria) it had around the base of the dome an Arabic registration of a Greek hymn. The Chapel Roger's Palatina a Palermo ..with a stupendous painted Arabic ceiling, the dome Byzantine ..i Greek mosaics…" Roger also intervened in religious field modifying the liturgy: it introduced the liturgy gallicana and it named in Palermo a Latin archbishop, definite besides the number of the dioceses and also the bishops' choice.
The end of Norman Sicily -when it climbed on the throne of the Regnum William The (says the Bad one), Roger's child, the political moment was not of the easiest. Sicily was upset by the increasing feudal opposition and by the social tensions that often flowed in popular insurrections: one of the targets were Maione in Bari, Prime Minister of William, victim of the 1155 tumult. To the death of William I, happened in 1166, Sicily was governed by his/her mother Margherita of Navarra, that was forced to ask help own relatives against the nervousness provoked by the barons. Under the regency of William II
(1172), Sicily relatively knew a calm period and for this the new king was said the Good one. Retained by the most correct, indulgent and tolerant, William II also conquered the opinion of the historiographers because it protected intellectual of the time, above all the Arabic poets. From certain sources it has emerged that the Moslems maintained a wide representation of government and religion: Palermo was still populated by mosques. Visible sign of the patronage of William is today still the grandiose abbey of Monreale which followed the construction of Cuba and the Zisa to Palermo. In the same city the cathedral and other monuments of architectural relief were built.
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