The Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of England, 1066–1266

Abstract

AbstractThis article looks back from the political crisis in England in the 1250s to examine English and Anglo‐Norman perceptions of southern Italy and Sicily, and contacts between the two regions, over the previous two centuries. Although some at least were conscious of a common Norman heritage, commentators from England knew relatively little of the southern kingdom; certainly less than the Norman chroniclers, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, and even they were less well informed than has been suggested in the past. There was a period of increased diplomatic contact for a generation or so after 1160, in which the Becket dispute played a part, culminating in the visit of Richard I to Sicily during the Third Crusade although that episode did nothing to increase the warmth of Anglo‐Sicilian relations. Thereafter there was relatively little contact for the next half‐century, in spite of Frederick II's marriage to the sister of Henry III of England in 1235. Furthermore, Sicily was always perceived as an exotic and alien region indicating that the perceptions found in the 1250s had been anticipated at an earlier period.