Editing Roger II of Sicily (section)

==Background==
{{See also|Norman conquest of southern Italy}}

By 999, [[Normans|Norman]] adventurers had arrived in southern Italy.{{sfn|Barber|2004|p=209}} By 1016, they were involved in the complex local politics, where Lombards were fighting against the [[Byzantine Empire]]. As mercenaries they fought the enemies of the Italian city-states, sometimes fighting for the Byzantines and sometimes against them, but in the following century they gradually became the rulers of the major [[polities]] south of Rome. {{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Roger I ruled the [[County of Sicily]] at the time of the birth of his youngest son, Roger, at [[Mileto]], [[Calabria]], in 1095.{{sfn|Houben|2002|p=xvii}} Roger I's nephew, [[Roger Borsa]], was the [[duke of Apulia and Calabria]], and his great nephew, [[Richard II of Capua]], was the [[prince of Capua]]. Alongside these three major rulers were a large number of minor [[count]]s, who effectively exercised sovereign power in their own localities.  These counts at least nominally owed allegiance to one of these three Norman rulers, but such allegiance was usually weak and often ignored.{{sfn|Matthew|1992|p=21}}

When Roger I died in 1101, his young son [[Simon of Hauteville|Simon]] became count, with his mother [[Adelaide del Vasto]] as [[regent]]. Simon died four years later in 1105 at the age of 12. Adelaide continued as regent to her younger son Roger, who was nine.{{sfn|Houben|2002|p=24}}