William I (Sicily)

Rota Wilhelms on diploma for Archbishop Hugo of Palermo, 1159 June

William I of Sicily (also called William the Evil , not contemporary; * 1122 - † May 7, 1166 in Palermo ) from the House of Hauteville was King of Sicily .

Family relationships

Wilhelm was the youngest son of Roger II of Sicily . He was appointed co-regent by his father on Easter 1151. After the death of his father on February 26, 1154, he was king of Sicily for twelve years .

Wilhelm was married to Margaret of Navarre . His eldest son, Roger, was Duke of Apulia from June 1156 until his death in March 1161. He was succeeded by Wilhelm II of Sicily , who was not awarded a title even after the death of the older brother, while the youngest brother, Heinrich († 1172), was appointed Prince of Capua .

Foreign policy

His greatest foreign policy success was the conclusion of peace with Pope Hadrian IV in the Benevento Concordat in June 1156, which, excluding the territorial disputes on the northern border of the kingdom, resulted in an almost complete recognition of the prerogatives of the Sicilian king over the church. The trade and legal protection treaties with Genoa in November 1156 and Venice (1155?) Also strengthened the Norman Empire.

Domestic politics

Sarcophagus of William I of Sicily in the cathedral of Monreale

Domestically, he had to struggle with the opposition of the nobility. He himself put down the Apulian uprising, which was also supported by Byzantium , in 1156: Bari , with the exception of the Basilica of San Nicola, was razed to the ground, the inhabitants were expelled and some leaders were banished, whom the guardianship government for Wilhelm II made possible to return. The politics of his closest colleague Maio von Bari , whose career at the court of Palermo had already begun in recent years Rogers II - under Wilhelm he became ammiratus ammiratorum (emir of the emirs) - triggered unrest in Palermo, initially leading to the assassination Maios in November 1160. In the spring of 1161 the king and his family were even imprisoned. The conspirators wanted to raise Wilhelm's son Roger to king, but he was killed in the unrest. After a short time Wilhelm was released and was able to suppress the conspiracy.

He is buried in the cathedral of Monreale , where he was transferred from the Capella Palatina .

swell

• Giovanni Battista Siragusa: Historia o Liber de Regno Siciliae e la Epistola ad Petrum Panormitanae Ecclesiae thesaurarium di Ugo Falcando [Fonti per la storia d'Italia 22], Roma 1897
• Horst Enzensberger : Guillelmi I. regis diplomata. (Codex diplomaticus regni Siciliae, 1: Diplomata regum et principum e gente Normannorum 3), Cologne / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-412-00689-0 .
• Carlo Alberto Garufi , Romualdi Salernitani Chronicon [Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, NS t. VII / 1] Città di Castello 1935.

literature

• Francesco Panarelli :  Guglielmo I d ̕Altavilla. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 60:  Grosso – Guglielmo da Forlì. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2003.
• Berardo Pio : Guglielmo I d ̕Altavilla. Gestione del potere e lotta politica nell ̕Italia normanna (1154–1169) (= Il mondo medievale. Vol. 24). Patron, Bologna 1996, ISBN 88-555-2389-9 .
• Horst Enzensberger: The "bad" and the "good" Wilhelm: On the church policy of the Norman kings of Sicily after the Treaty of Benevento (1156). In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages Volume 36, 1980, pp. 385-432 ( digitized version ).
• Klaus-Peter Todt :  Wilhelm I. King of Sicily. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 1270-1274.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm I (Sicily)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Publications about Wilhelm I in the Opac of the Regesta Imperii

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger ii	King of Sicily 1151 / 1154–1166	Wilhelm II.
Tankred	Prince of Taranto 1137–1154