1142? The Rise and Fall of Focerò in a Greek Petition to King Roger II of Sicily

Abstract

This Greek petition from Norman Sicily under king Roger II (r. 1130–1154) reports back on events in the post-conquest period of the 1090s when the king’s father, count Roger I (d. 1101) was establishing and re-organising a rudimentary form of administration over lands and men on the island. The petition not only sheds light on these processes, but it also recalls that there had been serious and sustained rebellions in Calabria and Sicily against the authority of Roger wife, Adelaide (r. 1101–1112), the mother of the future king, Roger II. During this time, a new settlement of Focerò, where many families had been ordered to live and work, had been repeatedly attacked and destroyed.