Manchester University Press Roger II and the Creation of the Kingdom of Sicily (Manchester Medieval Sources)

This student-friendly volume brings together English translations of the main narrative sources, and a small number of other relevant documents, for the reign of Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily. The kingdom created by King Roger was the most centralised and administratively advanced of the time, but its genesis was fraught with difficulty as the king sought to extend his power from the island of Sicily and Calabria into other parts of the south Italian mainland. This struggle, that lasted from 1127 until 1140, is graphically revealed by the two main texts in this book. A number of other texts illuminate key aspects of the reign: the relationship with the papacy, the German invasion of 1137 that came close to toppling the king's rule, the expansion of Sicilian power into the Abruzzi in 1140, and the law and administration of the kingdom, often seen as a model for the growth of effective government in the twelfth century. Despite the great intrinsic interest of the reign of King Roger, these texts have never appeared in English translation before. They reveal a fascinating struggle between the forces of royal authority on the one hand and baronial unrest and strivings for urban liberty on the other, and provide essential evidence for a crucial episode in the history of medieval Christendom. The two principal texts also illustrate different methods of writing history in the Middle Ages. This will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of medieval Europe. Review Scholars will welcome the appearance of Graham Loud's Roger II and the Creation of the Kingdom of Sicily, which provides an illuminating window on the construction, consolidation and extension of the Norman kingdom of Sicily under Roger II (1130-1154 ....this work is another success for the popular Manchester Medieval Sources Series. This work is not simply a selection of translated materials with minimal context and apparatus, but a highly effective and fully annotated book that will satisfy both the specialist and those new to the subject...It will remain highly useful as a first port of call for the Anglophone reader for some time to come. From the Inside Flap This student-friendly volume brings together English translations of the main narrative sources, and a small number of other relevant documents, for the reign of Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily. The kingdom created by King Roger was the most centralised and administratively advanced of the time, but its genesis was fraught with difficulty as the king sought to extend his power from the island of Sicily and Calabria into other parts of the south Italian mainland. This struggle, that lasted from 1127 until 1140, is graphically revealed by the two main texts in this book. A number of other texts illuminate key aspects of the reign: the relationship with the papacy, the German invasion of 1137 that came close to toppling the kings rule, the expansion of Sicilian power into the Abruzzi in 1140, and the law and administration of the kingdom, often seen as a model for the growth of effective government in the twelfth century. Despite the great intrinsic interest of the reign of King Roger, these texts have never appeared in English translation before.This will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of medieval Europe. From the Back Cover This student-friendly volume brings together English translations of the main narrative sources, and a small number of other relevant documents, for the reign of Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily. The kingdom created by King Roger was the most centralised and administratively advanced of the time, but its genesis was fraught with difficulty as the king sought to extend his power from the island of Sicily and Calabria into other parts of the south Italian mainland. This struggle, that lasted from 1127 until 1140, is graphically revealed by the two main texts in this