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29-484: The urban center includes two former villages that were separated for a long time. Canneto was founded by the Normans of Robert Guiscard between 1080 and 1090, on the place of an ancient center (probably to be identified with Celiae ), documented from ceramics and more recent graves from the 4th century. Montrone was founded in 980 by Greek refugees. Both had been subdued to varied feudal lords until 1806 when feudalism

58-522: A cease-fire and would not permit her to be ransomed unless Henry recognized him. In 1192 he created Margaritus Count of Malta, perhaps for his unexpected success in capturing the empress. However, Tancred was willing to give up his negotiation advantage, that is, his aunt, in exchange for Pope Celestine III legitimizing him as King of Sicily. In turn, the Pope was hoping that by securing Constance's safe passage back to Rome, Henry would be better disposed towards

87-470: Is consequently often referred to as Tancred of Lecce . Due to his short stature and unhandsome visage, he was mocked by his critics as "The Monkey King". After the death of Duke Roger, to prevent any future trouble, King Roger II kept Tancred and his younger brother William in close custody in Palermo. On 9 March 1161, Tancred joined his uncle Simon, Prince of Taranto , in invading the palace, detained

116-788: The Byzantine generals who came there, causing the greatest naval loss of Byzantine empire; later Margaritus was appointed as Counts of Zakynthos , Cephalonia , and Ithaki . Tancred was the governor of Lecce: he built the Church of St. Nicholas in Catado in Lecce (1180); he built the complex of St. Maria church near Squinzano and the important works in the Otranto Cathedral . Despite having sworn fealty to Constance, as soon as William II died, in 1189, Tancred rebelled and seized control of

145-532: The Italo-Norman dynasty. Tancred, King of Sicily Tancred ( Italian : Tancredi ; 1138 – 20 February 1194) was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce , an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia (the eldest son of King Roger II ) by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce . He inherited the title "Count of Lecce" from his grandfather and

174-639: The captivity of the Empress. Henry had left garrisons along the frontiers of the Regno. Tancred now sought to win over the towns by extensive grants of privileges. At Gravina (June 1192) he reinforced his papal support by surrendering the royal legateship over Sicily. In 1192 and 1193 he personally led successful campaigns against the Apulian barons. But his death at Palermo (20 February 1194) two months after that of his young son and co-king, Roger III , opened

203-571: The citizens of Palermo seemed to sympathize with her or view her as the legal heiress of Sicily, but Tancred did not agree, worrying that this would harm his popularity; instead, he suggested Sibylla to consult with Matthew d'Ajello, and after receiving a letter written by Matthew d'Ajello in presence of Sibylla, he had Constance locked in Castel dell'Ovo in Naples to be better-guarded. With the empress in his hand Tancred initially wanted to force Henry into

232-534: The city had been looted and burned, Richard established his base there and decided to stay the winter. Richard remained at Messina until March 1191, when Tancred finally agreed to a treaty. According to the treaty's main terms: After signing the treaty Richard and Philip finally left Sicily for the Holy Land. It is rumoured that before he left, Richard gave Tancred a sword he claimed was Excalibur in order to secure their friendship. Having at last rid himself of

261-547: The crusade. When Tancred balked at these demands, Richard seized a monastery and the castle of La Bagnara. Richard was joined in Sicily by the French crusading army, led by King Philip II . The presence of two foreign armies soon caused unrest among the locals. In October the people of Messina revolted, demanding that the foreigners leave the island. Richard responded by attacking Messina, which he captured on 4 October 1190. After

290-609: The crusaders, Tancred next confronted the threat from the north. In April 1191 in Rome , Henry and Constance were crowned emperor and empress of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Celestine III , and now the pair turned south to claim the Kingdom of Sicily. Constance accompanied her husband at the head of a substantial imperial army that descended into the Regno. The northern towns of the kingdom opened their gates to Henry, including

319-616: The diversity of Southern Italy, by the cultures and customs of the Greeks , Lombards , and Arabs in Sicily. Normans first arrived in Italy as pilgrims, probably on their way to or returning from either Rome or Jerusalem , or from visiting the shrine at Monte Gargano , during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. In 1017, the Lombard lords in Apulia recruited their assistance against

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348-487: The dwindling power of the Byzantine Catapanate of Italy . They soon established vassal states of their own and began to expand their conquests until they were encroaching on the Lombard principalities of Benevento and Capua , Saracen -controlled territories, as well as Greek, and territory under papal allegiance. Their conquest of Sicily, which began in 1061, was completed by 1091. Italo-Normans were

377-436: The earliest Norman strongholds Capua and Aversa . Salerno , once Roger II's mainland capital, sent word ahead that Henry was welcome and invited Constance to stay in her father's old palace to escape the summer heat. Naples offered the first resistance of the whole campaign, withstanding a siege with the help of Margaritus of Brindisi 's fleet, until much of the imperial army had succumbed to malaria and disease. Eventually

406-784: The imperial army was forced to withdraw from the kingdom altogether. Constance remained in Salerno with a small garrison, as a sign that Henry would soon return. Once Henry had withdrawn with the bulk of the imperial army, the towns that had supposedly fallen to the empire immediately declared their allegiance to Tancred, for the most part now fearing his retribution. The populace of Salerno saw an opportunity to win some favour with Tancred and delivered Constance to him in Messina , an important prize given that Henry had every intention of returning. Tancred angrily blamed Constance for German invasion, but Constance, in her attire as empress, replied that she

435-466: The island. He was crowned early in 1190. His coup was backed by the vice chancellor Matthew d'Ajello and the official class, while the rival claims of Constance and her husband, Henry VI , King of the Romans, were supported by most of the nobles. Roger, Count of Andria , also a candidate for Sicilian throne, was among the supporters of Constance and Henry. Matthew d'Ajello managed to defame Roger, and in

464-448: The king and queen, William I and Margaret , and their two sons, and incited a massacre of Muslims. Originally, the older of these two sons, Roger IV, Duke of Apulia , was destined to be crowned in place of William, but soon the populace supported the accession of Simon himself. Before Simon could put himself forward as a candidate, however, the rebellion had broken down and the people were restless. The insurrectionists were forced to free

493-645: The king and retreat to their castles. Pardon was given them on condition of exile and many, including Tancred, took the offer. Tancred was exiled to Constantinople and returned to Sicily in 1166 upon the accession of the new king, his cousin William II . In 1174 Tancred led a large fleet to Egypt on behalf of William II. The Sicilians landed near Alexandria but when they realised that their expected allies would not be coming (due to King Amalric I of Jerusalem 's death) and with Saladin 's army approaching they returned to their ships and sailed home. As William II

522-534: The papacy, and he was still hoping to keep the empire and the kingdom from uniting. Under the Pope's threat of excommunication , Tancred was forced to do so and gave Constance gifts. However, imperial soldiers were able to intervene at the borders of the Papal States before Constance made it to Rome; and they returned her safely across the Alps in summer 1192. So both Tancred and Pope effectively gained nothing from

551-440: The peninsula and the island. Between 1135 and 1155 Roger II also created an Italo-Norman Kingdom of Africa in coastal Tunisia and Tripolitania . He intended to unite this African kingdom with his Kingdom of Sicily, but his untimely death in 1154 put an end to these plans. When founded in 1130, this Italo-Norman kingdom united the whole of Southern Italy under the same rule for the first time since Justinian's brief reconquest of

580-586: The peninsula as a whole. The Norman dynasty established by Roger II continued with William I , and then William II. After the latter's death without heirs in 1189, and following the brief reign of his illegitimate cousin Tancred of Lecce, the German Emperor Henry VI of Swabia (who had married Constance , aunt and legitimate successor of William II) conquered the kingdom in 1194, defeating William III of Sicily (son of Tancred) and ending

609-754: The primary Norman mercenaries in the employ of the Byzantine emperors , and many found service in Rome under the pope. Some went to Spain to join the Reconquista , and in 1096 the Normans of Bohemond of Taranto joined the First Crusade and set up the principality of Antioch in the Levant . In 1130 under Roger II , they created the Kingdom of Sicily , encompassing the whole of their conquests on

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638-437: The same year Richard, Count of Acerra brother-in-law of Tancred tricked Roger into captivity and execution. Matthew also persuaded Pope Clement III to support Tancred, and Tancred appointed Matthew as chancellor. Tancred was a good soldier, though his tiny stature earned him the nickname "Tancredulus" from the poet chronicler Peter of Eboli . Despite a measure of popular support, his rule faced daunting challenges right from

667-429: The start. In 1190, King Richard I of England arrived in Sicily at the head of a large crusading army on its way to the Holy Land. Richard immediately demanded the release of his sister, William II's wife Joan , imprisoned by Tancred in 1189, along with every penny of her dowry and dower (in response of her vocal support of Germans). He also insisted that Tancred fulfil the financial commitments made by William II to

696-455: The way for Hohenstaufen rule in Sicily. His widow, Sibylla of Acerra , established a regency for their son, William III , but Henry returned to Italy later that year, with his army financed by the lucrative ransom of Richard I. Naples surrendered in May, almost without a blow, and the rest of the Regno followed. Sibylla and the loyal Margaritus prepared to defend Palermo, but the citizens admitted

725-567: The world. This Apulia location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Italo-Normans The Italo-Normans ( Italian : Italo-Normanni ), or Siculo-Normans ( Siculo-Normanni ) when referring to Sicily and Southern Italy , are the Italian -born descendants of the first Norman conquerors to travel to Southern Italy in the first half of the eleventh century. While maintaining much of their distinctly Norman piety and customs of war, they were shaped by

754-916: Was abolished under the Kingdom of Two Sicilies . The two villages were united in 1927 under the artificial name of Adelfia, from the Greek term adelphòs , meaning brotherhood. Between the 19th and the 20th century, there was considerable emigration to the United States. Town life is now mainly connected to nearby Bari. Adelfia has a strong Catholic tradition. Its citizens celebrate the feasts of its patron saints, San Trifone (in Montrone) and San Vittoriano (in Canneto), in November and July each year. The celebrations include fairs, masses and fireworks competitions which attract thousands of pilgrims from all over

783-557: Was heirless, Tancred had a chance to claim the throne; to prevent this, in October 1184 William released his aunt Constance from monastery, approved her marriage and designated her as his heir. In June 1185, Tancred led a huge Sicilian fleet of 300 ships under the command of Richard, Count of Acerra his brother-in-law to Durazzo to attack the core of the Byzantine Empire. In August, surrounded by navy and army, Thessaloniki

812-541: Was occupied and looted. The Sicilian army was then heavily damaged by the army of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II and was annihilated on the way back to the Balkans, while the fleet of Tancred returned to Sicily unharmed. In June 1186, Tancred and Margaritus of Brindisi led the Norman fleet to Cyprus (the governor of Cyprus, Isaac Comnenus , had rebelled against Byzantine), captured 70 warships of Isaac II easily, expelled

841-418: Was taking back her dominion grabbed by Tancred. Despite this Tancred always treated his aunt, now detained, honourably with courtesy, which his wife Queen Sibylla strongly opposed, believing this would implicitly acknowledge the claim of the latter. Constance was sent to Palermo supervised by Sibylla, eating with her and sleeping in her bedroom. Sibylla suggested that Constance be put to death after sensing that

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