The Children of Adam and Eve

Roger II (1095-1154), first king of Sicily (1130-54), who created a state
in which Arabs, Greeks, Italians, and Jews lived together in peace and in
which the arts and letters flourished. The second son of Roger I, the
Norman conqueror of Sicily, Roger succeeded his Brother Simon (died 1105)
as count of Sicily in 1103. When his cousin Duke William of Apulia died in
1127, Roger laid claim to that duchy; by 1129 he had compelled the Norman
barons on the Italian mainland to acknowledge him as their ruler. In 1130
he adopted the title of king of Sicily, with sovereignty also over the
southern Italian regions of Apulia, Calabria, Capua, and Naples,
establishing a monarchy that survived for More than seven centuries. He
was recognized as king by Pope Innocent II (r. 1130-43) in 1139. Roger
made his court at Palermo one of Europe's foremost cultural centers, and
he erected throughout Sicily numerous buildings that were a striking blend
of Norman, Arabic and Byzantine architectural styles.