Roger of Sicily: Portrait of a Ruler

The reputation of the Normans in the eleventh century as conquerors is as much the result of their patronage of historical writing as to their military abilities. By eleventh century standards, Norman military activities are well documented especially in the narrative accounts of their exploits in Italy. By 1100, three different chroniclers had independently of each other produced full-length accounts of the conquests in southern Italy and Sicily. The first chronicler Amatus of Montecassino composed his History of the Normans within a few years of the death of Richard I of Capua, a generous patron of his monastery, in 1078. William of Apulia wrote his versified account of Norman activities in the region with special emphasis on the career of Robert Guiscard in the late 1090s. Finally, while William was working on his Deeds of Robert Guiscard, Geoffrey Malaterra was immortalising Robert’s brother Roger in his Deeds of Roger Count of Calabria and Sicily and His Brother Duke Robert Guiscard. Unusually, Malaterra’s chronicle can almost be seen as a ‘double’ biography for though Roger is clearly the main focus of the work Guiscard is a menacing presence until his death in 1085 at the end of Book III. We do not know much about Malaterra but he was asked to compose his history, which took him ten years to complete, by Count Roger of Sicily in the 1090s. Unlike his brother Robert Guiscard--the subject of a companion volume--Roger of Sicily was more than simply a warlord (though he proved an effective military leader) but he was also an effective ruler of his lands in southern Italy as well as Sicily itself.