Editing Roger II of Sicily (section)

====Consolidation of kingship====
[[File:Scifato ducale.jpg|left|thumb|250px|AR [[Scyphate]] Ducalis, dated year 10 (1140), after the king's victory on 25 July. Obverse: Christ. Reverse: King Roger and Duke Roger.]]

After the death of Anacletus in January 1138, Roger had sought the confirmation of his title from Innocent. However, the pope wanted an independent Principality of Capua as a buffer state between the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] and the [[Papal States]], something Roger would not accept.{{sfn|Houben|2002|p=71}} In the summer of 1139, Innocent II invaded the kingdom with a large army, but was ambushed on 22 July 1139 at [[Galluccio]],{{sfn|Robinson|1990|p=386}} southeast of present-day [[Cassino, Italy|Cassino]], by Roger's son and was captured. Three days later, by the [[Treaty of Mignano]], the pope proclaimed Roger II ''rex Siciliae ducatus Apuliae et principatus Capuae'' (King of Sicily, Duke of Apulia and commander of Capua). The boundaries of his ''regno'' were only later fixed by a truce with the pope in October 1144. These lands were for the next seven centuries to constitute the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.

In 1139, Bari, the 50,000 inhabitants of which had remained unscathed behind its massive walls during the wars of the past year, decided to surrender. The ''excellentissimus princeps'' [[Jaquintus, Prince of Bari|Jaquintus]], who had led the rebellion of the city, was hanged, along with many of his followers, but the city avoided being sacked. Roger's execution of the prince and his counsellors was perhaps the most violent act of his life.

While his sons overcame pockets of resistance on the mainland, on 5 November 1139 Roger returned to Palermo to plan a great act of legislation: the [[Assizes of Ariano]], an attempt to establish his dominions in southern Italy as a coherent state. He returned to check on his sons' progress in 1140 and then went to [[Ariano Irpino|Ariano]], a town central to the peninsular possessions (and a center of rebellion under his predecessors). There he promulgated the great law regulating all [[Sicilians|Sicilian]] affairs. It invested the king and his bureaucracy with absolute powers and reduced the authority of the often rebellious vassals. While there, centralising his kingdom, Roger declared a new standard coinage, named after the duchy of Apulia: the ''[[ducat]].''