Roger II of Sicily: Family, Faith, and Empire in the Medieval Mediterranean World by Dawn Marie Hayes

Abstract

Reviewed by: Roger II of Sicily: Family, Faith, and Empire in the Medieval Mediterranean World by Dawn Marie Hayes Lindsay Diggelmann Hayes, Dawn Marie, Roger II of Sicily: Family, Faith, and Empire in the Medieval Mediterranean World (Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces, 7), Turnhout, Brepols, 2020; hardback; pp. 221; 18 b/w illustrations, 4 b/w tables; R.R.P. €75.00; ISBN 9782503581408. One of the enduring fascinations of the twelfth century is the way in which Roger II of Sicily managed to carve out for himself a kingdom of enormous wealth and influence despite the fact that his father and uncles had been part of the first generation of Norman warriors to arrive in Italy as penniless mercenaries. Roger's achievements and the key narrative and administrative sources have been thoroughly studied, notably in the works of Graham Loud, and yet the glittering brilliance of Roger's court continues to draw new acolytes. Dawn Marie Hayes is among their number, as attested by the admiring yet thoughtful and perceptive tone of this recent addition to the Brepols series 'Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces'. The themes listed in the book's subtitle indicate the division of the work into three parts (of two chapters each). While there are plentiful cross-references between sections, the study does have the feel of a collection of separate essays on a broadly similar theme and perhaps lacks a strong sense of overall coherence or coordinated argument from one section to the next. The introduction and conclusion are both brief for a work of this nature and neither offers more than a fairly superficial attempt to connect the major themes and arguments of the book's individual chapters. This impression is reinforced when it becomes apparent that three of the six substantive chapters are essentially reprints of the author's recent journal articles. A cross-check of Chapter 5 with the original version—which appeared in Viator in 2013—reveals that any 'revisions' are minor and cosmetic to help the article fit more comfortably into the current work. While this is disappointing, it is not to say that the book lacks scholarly value. Part I, 'Family', is where the bulk of the author's new work is found. Two chapters examine the marriages of Roger II and the possible motivations behind them. Roger was first married to the Spanish princess Elvira, daughter of Alfonso VI of León-Castile. Hayes argues persuasively for the political benefits of this marriage, considering that Roger, like Alfonso before him, ruled a peripheral region of the Christian world that involved dealing with Muslim neighbours. The king's brief [End Page 226] second and third marriages late in his life, necessitated in part by the death of male children and the desperate need to ensure dynastic continuity, were both to French noblewomen, one a descendant of Charlemagne. Here Hayes makes the case, also pursued in Chapter 5, of closer connections between Roger and the French monarchy and nobility than some scholars have previously allowed for. Roger's tantalizing connections with the Arabic and Byzantine worlds may have blinded previous critics to the more prosaic connections with the culture of Roger's own ancestors. Through an in-depth consideration of what we know about the careers and family backgrounds of each of Roger's wives, Hayes builds a careful argument about the potential diplomatic and dynastic benefits that may have led Roger to choose the brides he did. Part II, 'Faith', considers Norman connections to the cult of St Nicholas in Bari. Roger is a very distant figure in Chapter 3, one of the reprinted articles, which assesses the importance of Nicholas for earlier Normans active in Italy in the eleventh century. While the chapter is valuable in its own right, its inclusion in this collection must be questionable. Furthermore, the connection to Chapter 4 feels forced. The latter includes new work that makes a case for Roger's devotion to Nicholas but focuses more on the difficulties of creating a maritime state, over which Nicholas, the 'Christian Poseidon' (p. 126), might be considered a protector. Finally, Section 3, 'Empire', contains two essays examining the famous mosaic portrait of Roger...