William, ‘the Bad’, took over in 1154. What prompted the nickname ‘the bad’? He suffered from two main misfortunes: the first is that he was not his father, whose shoes it would be tough to fill; and the second, and more pertinent to the question of why he was nicknamed the “bad”, is that his biographer hated his guts.
William was a thoroughly oriental (when you read “oriental”, it means “eastern”, which for many of us means the far east. But for Europeans at the time, the ‘east’ was what we now call the middle east.) character, more like a Sultan than a King. Many of the Norman barons, particularly in Apulia, had no real love for his kingdom. They found themselves a leader, Robert of Loritello, who proposed a joint venture with Michael Paleologus of Constantinople, to drive William out of southern Italy. Remember that the “Kingdom” included Sicily, the island, and the territories on the southern end of the Italian peninsula.
In 1156, Campania and most of Apulia, the aforementioned territories on the Italian peninsula, were in Byzantine hands and it looked as if William would be chased out. But William fought back and the Greeks went chicken, lost the battle… and everything they had gained to that point. The Pope had sided against William, but having chosen the losing side, was forced to sign the Treaty of Benevento in 1159.
William returned to Sicily with a rather higher international standing than before the war, but internal discontent. His emir of emirs was assassinated in 1160, and less than a year later, a palace revolt took place in which William’s young son, Roger, was killed, and William himself was lucky to escape alive.
When he returned in 1162, Muslims and Christians were at each other’s throats.
He died in 1166. He was not a great king, but then again, following after his father Roger II would have made nearly anyone look bad in comparison. He was an excellent soldier, but he lacked equilibrium, and was unable to maintain the delicate balances on which the safety of his realm depended.
His 12 year old son William was to be the new King, but until he was old enough to be taken seriously, his mother found a capable administrator, one Stephan du Perche, to run things as Chancellor. He instituted some fair and needed reforms. No small feat in the atmosphere of distrust that existed. It may well be that such a thing may have required an outsider too. It’s possible that no one inside would be considered impartial enough to have been trusted.
In 1167, William moved the court from Palermo to Messina, but the Greek population there would not accept the French, and in 1168, a rebellion broke out that left no Frenchmen alive. Surprisingly, the young 14-year-old king rode out and faced down the crowds. Ballsy move, and the people, when confronted with their king, ditched the attitude and support for the rebellion died away. In the aftermath though, it was decided that Stephen du Perche and the French would be better off out of Sicily altogether. Steve never understood that the nation’s strength and survival depended on maintaining unity, and that was by nature heterogenous and fissile, and that unity must be imposed from above.
This is a relevant bit of history. How does a government oversee a multi-cultural, and easily divided, citizen base? Tolerance and respect are necessary ingredients, certainly. But tolerance and respect for those that are different from us isn’t our natural state. We don’t understand, and often just plain don’t like, cultures that are different from our own. So we will need to tolerate them and render them respect, but if we can’t do it on our own, then it needs to be enforced. Anyway… on with the history…
By 1168, William ‘the good’ was of age and crowned in Palermo. His reign was marked by peace and security. But…… he lacked some political wisdom. The search to find him a wife had been something of a celebrity thing in Sicily. A few matches were proposed but William wanted to know what they looked like before he’d commit. Joan, an English princess, daughter of King Henry II, but born in France, was a looker, so the marriage was on. They were apparently in love and happy.
Then the lack of political wisdom showed up. In 1183, Frederick Barbarossa proposed marriage of his son Henry with princess Constance of Sicily. The problem was, that if William and his wife Joanna didn’t have any surviving kids, the reign would pass from the Norman Hauteville line to another house altogether. But while William and Joan still hadn’t had any kids, they were young and there was time. Except, in 1189, the very thing they were hoping wouldn’t happen, happened: William II of the Hautevilles died, and Constance became ruler, giving the kingdom to Henry of Hohenstaufen. This was the end of Norman Sicily.