Guillaume Ier of Sicily

See also: Guillaume Ier

Guillaume Ier of Sicily (of the House of Hauteville), known as Guillaume the Bad , born around 1125, is the fourth wire of the king Roger II of Sicily and of the princess Elvire de Castille. Associated with the throne since 1151, Guillaume becomes, with dead of his father the February 20th 1154, the second Norman king of the sicilian kingdom normanno- .

If Guillaume inherits a powerful kingdom and into full apogee, its reign is however announced difficult and tumultuous. Indeed, the major part of the Norman barons dispute a capacity which he consider centralized too much with their taste, on behalf of the Palerman court royal and hate the most powerful character of the kingdom normanno-sicilian, the “Emir of the Emirs” Maion de Bari, qualified by its detractors of “diabolic”, “corrupted” and “plotter”, which is not completely false. The barons do not hesitate to be combined with the Byzantine against their king. Its title of king is disputed besides by the Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnène, like by the pope Adrien IV. However, Guillaume, often qualified the “indolent one”, decides to take the initiative; he penetrates in Italy of the South, fights the Byzantine that he ends up expelling, subjects the rebellious barons violently and besieges the pope Adrien IV in Bénévent. Then recognized king by this last in 1156, it then becomes faithful allied of the Papauté against carried out Germanic emperor Frederic Barberousse. After restorehaving violently restored a time the order in its possessions, it tries to continue the expansionist policy, Mediterranean and Eastern of his father but ends up losing all the fortified towns Normans of North Africa (on the current Tunisian coast ) and the last Norman bastion of Africa, Mahdia, falls into the first days from 1160: finished some of the Mediterranean Norman.

At the same time, the year 1160 marks a return of the disorders shaking the Norman kingdom: Maion de Bari is assassinated in November in Palermo, victim of a plot carried out by the nobility directed by Mattéo Bonello. Little time after, at the beginning of the Spring 1161, Guillaume himself is captured after a riot in Palermo and is imprisoned at the instigation a plot on behalf of rebellious barons. His/her oldest son and designated heir, briefly placed on the throne by the rebels, die shortly after in the mob of the events, while true a pogrom anti Moslem begins, putting thus fine at the tolerance Norman in Sicily.

He dies in Palermo, the May 7th 1166. Before dying, it names like successor his young person wire Guillaume, still a young whole adolescent, leaving him a weakened kingdom.

Guillaume the Bad one is at the origin of several buildings whose celebrates it palate Zisa, in Palermo.

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