Guillaume II of Sicily

Guillaume II of Sicily known as Guillaume the Good (of the House of Hauteville), is Norman king of Sicily of spring 1166 with 1189. Born in 1153/54, he is the second wire and successor of the king Guillaume the Bad. At died of this last, it is placed under the regency of his mother Marguerite of Sicily until her majority in 1172. Raised with Eastern, very cultivated and Polyglot, it is a “good” king but little attracted by the war. However, the qualifier of “good” can also hide an unquestionable lack of authority, in particular vis-a-vis the continental Norman barons of southernmost Italy.

There maintains positive ratios with the Papauté, is combined to the king England Henri II Plantagenêt, of which he marries in 1177 the girl Jeanne of England, sister of Richard Heart-of-Lion, but remains hostile with the Byzantine Empire and is opposed to the Germanic emperor Frederic Barberousse, this not trying last less than five military descents in Italy, without great results however.

It vainly tries to continue the expansionist policy of his father, and especially that of his grandfather Roger II of Sicily, attacking in 1174 the Egypt but failing in its attempt to take Alexandria. It tackles the Byzantine Empire, takes Corfou, Céphalonie and Zante, plunders Thèbes and Corinthe, takes and occupies Durazzo (1181), and makes a success of in 1185, to take and occupy the second city of the Empire, Thessalonique. However, a Byzantine counter-offensive forces the troops Normans, in majority Moslem, to leave the city the same year (at the end of 1185) and to evacuate Durazzo on the Adriatique.

Seeking an alliance against Byzance, it ends up giving his aunt Constance of Hauteville, girl posthumous of Roger II of Sicily, with the imperial prince Henri Hohenstaufen, wire of Barberousse (1186). But its early death at the 35 years age, without legitimate children, quickly causes serious problems of succession, leaving the kingdom normanno-sicilian in prey with the claims of the Germanic Roman Holy roman Empire.

King Guillaume the Good is with the origne several buildings. He makes complete in particular in 1170, the Palais of Zisa, begun with his father in 1164, and starts there some modifications until in 1184. Towards 1180, it is “Cuba” which it makes build with Palermo.

In the Divine comedy , Dante mentions king Guillaume the Good, a “sovereign considered and liked his subjects”, placing it at the Paradis in the 6th sky, the sky of Jupiter, among the pious princes, right and wise, at the sides of the David, Trajan, Constantin.

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