Editing William I of Sicily

{{Short description|King of Sicily from 1154 to 1166}}
{{infobox royalty
| name            = William I
| image           = William I of Sicily.jpg
| caption         = 
| succession      = [[King of Sicily]]
| reign           = 26&nbsp;February 1154{{snd}}7&nbsp;May 1166 
| predecessor     = [[Roger II of Sicily|Roger II]]
| successor       = [[William II of Sicily|William II]]
| house           = [[House of Hauteville|Hauteville]]
| father          = [[Roger II of Sicily]]
| mother          = [[Elvira of Castile, Queen of Sicily|Elvira of Castile]]
| spouse          = {{marriage|[[Margaret of Navarre]]|1149}}
| issue           = {{plainlist|
* [[Roger IV, Duke of Apulia]]
* [[Robert (son of William I of Sicily)|Robert III, Prince of Capua]]
* [[William II of Sicily|William II]]
* [[Henry, Prince of Capua]]}}
| birth_date      = 1120 or 1121
| birth_place     = [[Palermo]], [[Kingdom of Sicily]]
| death_date      = 7 May 1166
| death_place     = Palermo, Kingdom of Sicily
| burial_place    = [[Monreale Cathedral]]
}}

'''William I''' (1120 or 1121{{snd}} 7 May 1166), called '''the Bad''' or '''the Wicked''' ({{langx|scn|Gugghiermu lu Malu}}), was the second [[king of Sicily]], ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own in 1166. He was the fourth son of [[Roger II of Sicily|Roger II]] and [[Elvira of Castile (Sicilian queen)|Elvira of Castile]].

William's title "the Bad" seems little merited and expresses the bias of the historian [[Hugo Falcandus]] and the baronial class against the king and the official class by whom he was guided.{{sfn|Curtis|1911}}

==Early life==
William was the son of King [[Roger II of Sicily]], grandson of Count [[Roger I of Sicily]], and great-grandson of [[Tancred of Hauteville]].{{sfn|Luscombe|Riley-Smith|2004|p=760}} He grew up with little expectation of ruling. The deaths of his three older brothers [[Roger III, Duke of Apulia|Roger]], [[Tancred, Prince of Bari|Tancred]], and [[Alfonso of Hauteville|Alfonso]] between 1138 and 1148 changed matters, though when his father died William was still not well-prepared to take his place.

==Kingship==
[[File:Kingdom of Sicily 1154.svg|left|thumb|The Kingdom of Sicily as it existed at the ascension of William I in 1154. The borders remained virtually unchanged for 700 years.]]
On assuming power, William kept the administration which had guided his father's rule for his final years. Only the Englishman [[Thomas Brun]] was removed, and the [[chancellor]] [[Maio of Bari]] was promoted.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} The real power in the kingdom was at first exercised by Maio, a man of low birth, whose title ''[[Admiral|ammiratus ammiratorum]]'' was the highest in the realm. Maio continued Roger's policy of excluding the nobles from the administration and that was one of the most hated laws made by a ruler in The Middle Ages, and sought also to curtail the liberties of the towns. The barons, always chafing against the royal power, were encouraged to revolt by [[Pope Adrian IV]], whose recognition William had not yet sought, by the [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[Manuel I Comnenus]], and by the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I]].{{sfn|Curtis|1911}}

At the end of 1155, Roman troops recovered [[Bari]], [[Trani, Apulia|Trani]], [[Giovinazzo]], [[Andria]], [[Taranto]] and began to besiege [[Brindisi]]. William and his army landed on the peninsula and destroyed the Roman fleet (4 ships) and army at Brindisi on May 28, 1156, and recovered Bari.{{sfn|Curtis|1911}} Adrian came to terms at [[Benevento]] on June 18, 1156, where he and William signed the [[Treaty of Benevento]], abandoning the rebels and confirming William as king. During the summer of 1157, William sent a fleet of 164 ships carrying 10,000 men to sack [[Euboea]] and [[Almyros|Almira]]. In 1158 William made peace with the Romans.

These diplomatic successes were probably due to Maio; on the other hand, the [[Kingdom of Africa|African dominions]] were [[Almohad conquest of Norman Africa|lost]] to the [[Almohad]]s, and it is possible that he advised their abandonment in face of the dangers threatening the kingdom from the north.{{sfn|Curtis|1911}} In 1156, a revolt began in [[Sfax]] and quickly spread and nothing was done to put it down. In 1159, the admiral [[Ahmed es-Sikeli|Peter]] led a raiding expedition against the Saracen-held [[Balearic Islands]] with 160 ships. He tried to relieve besieged [[Mahdia]] with the same fleet, but turned around just after engaging in battle. Peter did not fall out of favour, but no further assistance was sent to the Christians holding out in Mahdia and the city surrendered on 11 January 1160, ending the "African empire".

The policy of Maio led to a general conspiracy, and in November 1160 Maio was murdered in Palermo by [[Matthew Bonello]], leader of the Sicilian nobles. The barons, however, had long been plotting to overthrow the king. Desiring a weak power on the throne, they had been eyeing the king's eldest son, [[Roger IV, Duke of Apulia]], as a possible replacement for his father.

After the assassination of Maio, the royal palace was stormed by two of the king's own relatives: his illegitimate half-brother [[Simon, Prince of Taranto|Simon]], whom he had dispossessed of [[Taranto]] early in his reign and his bastard nephew [[Tancred of Sicily|Tancred]], the count of [[Lecce]]. The king was captured along with his whole family, his life being barely spared by one [[Richard, Count of Molise|Richard of Mandra]]. Roger was then paraded through the streets and it was announced that he would be crowned in the cathedral three days thence.

For a while the king remained in the hands of the conspirators who purposed murdering or just deposing him, but the people and the army rallied round him; he recovered power, crushed the Sicilian rebels, had Bonello blinded, and in a short campaign reduced the rest of the ''Regno'',{{sfn|Curtis|1911}} avenging the rebel burning of [[Butera, Sicily|Butera]]. During the initial assault on the palace, to release the captive king, the king's son Roger was killed by a wayward arrow (though the historian Falcandus, seemingly ever-ready to impugn the royal character, has the king kicking his "faithless" son dead).

==Later years==
[[File:Tomb of William I of Sicily - Cathedral of Monreale - Italy 2015.JPG|thumb|William's [[sarcophagus]]]]
Thus freed from feudal revolts, William confided the government to men trained in Maio's school, creating a triumvirate: the [[Protonotary|grand protonotary]], [[Matthew of Ajello]]; Count [[Sylvester of Marsico]], who had inherited Maio's property; and the [[Bishop Palmer]] of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], elect, but not consecrated. His latter years were peaceful; he became the champion of the true pope against the Holy Roman Emperor, and [[Pope Alexander III|Alexander III]] was installed in the [[Lateran Palace]] in November 1165 by a guard of [[Normans]].{{sfn|Curtis|1911}}

William died on May 7, 1166, and was interred in [[Palermo Cathedral]], although he was later moved to [[Monreale Cathedral]]{{sfn|Herbermann|1913}} by his son and heir [[William II of Sicily]] when that building was completed.

== Description ==
According to [[Romuald Guarna]], William was handsome of aspect and majestic of presence, corpulent of body, sublime of stature,  haughty and greedy for honours, and more feared than loved.<ref>''Romoaldi Annales'' a. 1166, In: [[Georg Heinrich Pertz|G. H. Pertz]], [[Monumenta Germaniae Historica|MGH]], t. XVIIII, « Regnum Siciliae », XVIII, Hannover, 1866, p. 435 ([https://books.google.fr/books/content?id=X0EquRJppxEC&hl=fr&pg=PA435&img=1&zoom=3&sig=ACfU3U1NrMKUclDajf5B_9i7yXV15ICmKA&w=1025]) (in Latin).</ref>

According to the French author [[Alexandre Dumas]], who was able to see the king's body in his sarcophagus, he was around six feet tall.<ref>Alexandre Dumas, ''Le Speronare'', [http://www.dumaspere.com/pages/bibliotheque/chapitre.php?lid=v6&cid=23 XXIII ("Grecs et Normands")] (in French). ''Dumaspere.com''. Retrieved 20 April 2025.</ref>

==Children==
By his wife, [[Margaret of Navarre]],{{sfn|Luscombe|Riley-Smith|2004|p=760}} daughter of [[García Ramírez of Navarre]], he had four sons:

#[[Roger IV, Duke of Apulia]] (1152–1161){{sfn|Loud|Metcalfe|2002|p=xxi}}
#[[Robert III, Prince of Capua]] (1153–c.&nbsp;1160){{sfn|Loud|Metcalfe|2002|p=xxi}}
#[[William II of Sicily]] (1153–1189){{sfn|Luscombe|Riley-Smith|2004|p=760}}
#[[Henry, Prince of Capua]] (1158–1172){{sfn|Loud|Metcalfe|2002|p=xxi}}

== Controversial accounts ==
''[[De Mulieribus Claris]]'' by [[Boccaccio]] said that at the birth of [[Constance I of Sicily|Constance]], whom it described as the daughter of William, a Calabrian abbot named Joachim told William that she would cause the destruction of Sicily. William believed the prediction and forced the young Constance to become a nun to prevent her from marrying and having children. This apparently contradicted the fact that Constance was indeed the posthumous daughter of Roger II and half-sister of William. [[Giovanni Villani]] said William I sought to put her to death due to the prediction until Tancred, a bastard son of Count [[Roger I of Sicily]], persuaded him to send her to a convent instead.

[[Joachim Camerarius]] argued that Constance was simply sent to the convent during the coup against William I for her safety and stayed there until her betrothal without ever being a nun. [[Hugo Falcandus]] and [[Richard of San Germano]] argued Constance was brought up and educated in royal palace rather than a monastery. [[François Eudes de Mézeray]] said Constance had never become a nun.

==References==
{{More footnotes|date=June 2020}}
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{EB1911|wstitle = William I. of Sicily|volume=28|page=671|first=Edmund|last=Curtis|authorlink=Edmund Curtis}}
*{{cite book|title=Margaret, Queen of Sicily |author-last=Alio | author-first=Jacqueline| publisher=Trinacria | year=2017}}
*{{cite book |title=The Society of Norman Italy |editor-first1=Graham A. |editor-last1=Loud |editor-first2=Alex |editor-last2=Metcalfe |publisher=Brill |year=2002 }}
*{{cite book |title=The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 4, C. 1024–c. 1198, Part II |editor-first1=David |editor-last1=Luscombe |editor-first2=Jonathan |editor-last2=Riley-Smith |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 }}
*[[John Julius Norwich|Norwich, John Julius]]. ''The Kingdom in the Sun 1130–1194''. Longman: [[London]], 1970.
*[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/falcandus.html ''History of the Tyrants of Sicily''] at [[Patrologia Latina]].
*{{Catholic|wstitle=Naples}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Tancred, Prince of Bari|Tancred]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prince of Taranto]]|years=1138&ndash;1144}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Simon, Prince of Taranto|Simon]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Roger III, Duke of Apulia|Roger III]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Duke of Apulia and Calabria]]|years=1149&ndash;1151}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Roger IV, Duke of Apulia|Roger IV]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Roger II of Sicily|Roger II]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[King of Sicily]]|years=1154&ndash;1166}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William II of Sicily|William II]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Monarchs of Sicily}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:William 01 Of Sicily}}
[[Category:1120s births]]
[[Category:1166 deaths]]
[[Category:12th-century kings of Sicily]]
[[Category:Dukes of Apulia]]
[[Category:Princes of Taranto]]
[[Category:Norman warriors]]
[[Category:Burials at Monreale Cathedral]]
[[Category:Hauteville family]]
[[Category:Nobility from Palermo]]
[[Category:Sicilian people of Norman descent]]
[[Category:Counts of Malta]]
[[Category:Children of Roger II of Sicily]]