Tancred was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce. He inherited the title "Count of Lecce" from his grandfather and 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".
Constance I was reigning Queen of Sicily from 1194–98, jointly with her spouse from 1194 to 1197, and with her infant son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1198. She is particularly notable for her actions against her own family, the Norman kings of Sicily; she played an important role in the end of the Hauteville presence in Sicily. She was also Holy Roman Empress and later Dowager by marriage to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
Roger III, of the House of Hauteville, was the eldest son and heir of King Tancred of Sicily and Queen Sibylla. He was made Duke of Apulia, probably in 1189, shortly after his father's accession. In the summer of 1192 he was crowned co-king with his father. Follari were minted at Messina bearing both Tancred and Roger's names as kings.
Peter of Eboli or Petrus de Ebulo was a didactic versifier and chronicler who wrote in Latin.
Matthew of Ajello was a high-ranking member of the Norman court of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century. His brother John was a bishop.
Latin translations of the 12th century were spurred by a major search by European scholars for new learning unavailable in western Europe at the time; their search led them to areas of southern Europe, particularly in central Spain and Sicily, which recently had come under Christian rule following their reconquest in the late 11th century. These areas had been under Muslim rule for a considerable time, and still had substantial Arabic-speaking populations to support their search. The combination of this accumulated knowledge and the substantial numbers of Arabic-speaking scholars there made these areas intellectually attractive, as well as culturally and politically accessible to Latin scholars. A typical story is that of Gerard of Cremona, who is said to have made his way to Toledo, well after its reconquest by Christians in 1085, because he:
arrived at a knowledge of each part of [philosophy] according to the study of the Latins, nevertheless, because of his love for the Almagest, which he did not find at all amongst the Latins, he made his way to Toledo, where seeing an abundance of books in Arabic on every subject, and pitying the poverty he had experienced among the Latins concerning these subjects, out of his desire to translate he thoroughly learnt the Arabic language.
Tommaso Fazello was an Italian Dominican friar, historian and antiquarian. He is known as the father of Sicilian history. He is the author of the first printed history of Sicily: De Rebus Siculis Decades Duae, published in Palermo in 1558 in Latin. He was born in Sciacca, Sicily and died in Palermo, Sicily.
Eugenius of Palermo was an amiratus (admiral) of the Kingdom of Sicily in the late twelfth century.
Pietro Ranzano was an Italian Dominican friar, bishop, historian, humanist and scholar who is best known for his work, De primordiis et progressu felicis Urbis Panormi, a history of the city of Palermo from its beginnings up until the contemporary period in which Ranzano was writing. The composition is influenced to some extent by humanistic conceptions of historical research, offers glimpses into the world view of a Sicilian intellectual of the Renaissance period on Jews and Jewish culture, as well as Sicily’s past.
Lu rebellamentu di Sichilia, fully Cronica di lu rebellamentu di Sichilia contra re Carlu, is a Sicilian historical chronicle of the War of the Vespers written around 1290. The anonymous Rebellamentu, probably written at Messina, was ascribed to Atanasiu di Iaci by Pasquale Castorina in 1883. Though the Rebellamentu sometimes adds valuable details to the history of the Vespers, it is frequently untrustworthy. Its monastic provenance is evident in its moralising tone. The antiquity of its language has placed its authenticity beyond doubt, despite its lack of an early manuscript tradition. This has not prevented speculation that it was written contemporarily with events: one verb in one manuscript is found in the first-person present; this may represent the author inadvertently stepping out of his usual frame of reference, or merely an error in that manuscript.
Henry VI, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
Matthew was the Archbishop of Capua from 1183, when he succeeded Alfanus of Camerota. He supported the claim to the Sicilian kingdom of Constance and her husband, the Emperor Henry VI, against that of the reigning monarch, Tancred of Lecce. Under Henry, he became a royal advisor and imperial familiaris (courtier) at the court in Palermo. After the cities of Aversa and Capua briefly rebelled against Tancred in 1191, it was probably Matthew who persuaded them to surrender without a fight to Henry. In 1198 Constance placed the Jewry of Capua, thitherto under royal protection, under the protection of the archbishop as a reward for Matthew's loyalty. He was also praised by Henry's panegyrist, Peter of Eboli, in his Liber ad honorem Augusti.
The 1191 papal election took place after the death of Pope Clement III. Pope Clement, according to differing and irreconcilable reports, died in March 1191, in the last third of the month, on the 20th, the 25th, the 26th, the 28th, or perhaps 2 April or 4 April, or 10 April. The election was conducted during the march of King Henry VI and his army toward Rome. The 85-year-old Cardinal Giacinto Bobone, a member of the Orsini family, was chosen after some extreme reluctance. He took the name Celestine III. Pressed by the Romans, however, he agreed to negotiate with King Henry about his coronation as emperor and about the possession of the city of Tusculum. Celestine postponed his own consecration in order to buy time to negotiate. He was finally crowned on Easter Sunday, 14 April 1191.
Conrad of Querfurt was a prince of the church in the Kingdom of Germany. He was the bishop of Hildesheim (1194–1199) and the bishop of Würzburg (1198–1202), served two kings as chancellor (1194–1201) and went on the Crusade of 1197.
Pietro Diani was an Italian cardinal. The name "Diana" is incorrect; he signs himself Petrus Dianus.
Hugh Lupin, called the Younger, was a baron of the Kingdom of Sicily. He was the eldest son of Count Hugh I of Catanzaro and Countess Clementia, and twin brother of Count Jordan of Bovino.
Jordan Lupin was the first count of Bovino in the Norman kingdom of Sicily. He played a major role in the final years of Norman rule and first years of the Staufer dynasty. Twice he was involved in opposing crusader armies passing through Sicily. In the second instance, he led a revolt, apparently in the hope of seizing the throne. He was successful in attracting significant support, and was even crowned anti-king, but was ultimately captured and executed.
De balneis Puteolanis is a medieval didactic poem in Latin, attributed to Peter of Eboli, describing the thermal baths of Pozzuoli in the Campi Flegrei region of Campania. The poem has the alternative title De balneis terrae laboris.
The Annales Siculi is an anonymous set of Latin annals covering the island of Sicily between 1027 and 1265. Although it covers the entire period of Norman rule in Sicily and almost the entire period of Staufer rule, the Annales is not concerned with the kingdom of Sicily as a whole but only the island. It is least accurate for the earliest period, down to 1052, and is most substantial for the reigns of the Staufer kings Frederick II (1197–1250) and Manfred (1258–1266). It is conjectured to be the work of a monk, probably from the vicinity of Messina. The quality of the text's Latin is poor. It was probably composed sometime after the Angevin conquest of the kingdom in 1266.
Rerum italicarum scriptores ab anno æræ christianæ quingentesimo ad millesimumquingentesimum is a collection of texts which are sources for Italian history from the 6th to the 15th century, compiled in the 18th century by Ludovico Antonio Muratori.
