Italy during the Crusades
Sicily under the Normans
Greek, then Roman, then Byzantine, Sicily was conquered by the Arabs in 827. Every one of these layers had centuries of influence on the island when Sicily was conquered by yet another culture. Members of the notorious Hauteville clan appeared first in 1062, though they did not complete the conquest until 1091 (Bari fell in 1071, Palermo in 1072). The main architect of this "other" Normanconquest was Robert Guiscard. He was aided by his brother, Roger. By the time they were done, they had received the title of Duke from the papacy.
Roger died in 1101. He was succeeded by his son, Roger II, who was the first King of Sicily. The elder Roger was married to Adelaide, who ruled until her son came of age in 1112. The following year, she accepted a marriage proposal from Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem. Amid great celebrations, and travelling in high style, Adelaide went east. One of the terms of the marriage was that if the marriage were barren, the young Roger would inherit. The marriage was indeed childless, but it was also a very unhappy one. Baldwin did not receive the political benefits he had anticipated, a new opportunity arose, and the two didn't like each other, anyway. Baldwin repudiated Adelaide in 1117 and she was forced to return, humiliated, to Sicily. This episode so poisoned relations that Sicily simply refused to help Jerusalem up until the city fell in 1187.
Roger II was an ambitious, powerful and effective ruler. As with most such kings, he also had a reputation for cruelty and greed. In his father's day, Sicily was one duchy and Apulia another, though both were ruled by Hauteville boys. Roger took advantage of various opportunities and accidents to expand his rule onto the mainland. He also built an effective navy and expanded into North Africa. In 1128 he was recognized by Pope Honorius II as Duke. The following year, at Melfi, he received oaths of loyalty from his barons. And on Christmas Day, 1130, Pope Anacletus made Roger King of Sicily in exchange for Roger's support against his rival, Innocent II.
Since Innocent eventually won that rivalry and was recognized as the legitimate pope, Roger came to be painted as a usurper and a tyrant. In the 1130s, Pope Innocent, with the help and support of Bernard of Clairvaux, made common cause with Emperor Lothar against Sicily. Lothar attacked Roger in 1136, driving him out of Calabria and Apulia, back to the island. As soon as Lothar went home (1137), Roger returned to the mainland and reclaimed his losses. He was excommunicated in 1139, but defeated a papal army sent against him. Having exhausted all his resources, Pope Innocent finally yielded and recognized Roger as a legitimate king. Nevertheless, the popes continued to regard the Norman kings with suspicion.
Roger's great accomplishment was that he not only survived, he created a successful and thriving kingdom. He kept firm control of his barons and the Church. His court is famous because of the influence of Muslims and Jews, a multi-cultural court that was very rare in western Europe. Throughout the Crusader period, Sicily was a major European power.
Roger's son, William I (1154-1166), was faced with the same problems as his father, plus some new ones. The popes wanted to keep the Regno (kingdom) weak and so fomented rebellion at every opportunity. The Byzantine emperors likewise had reason to fear a strong Norman state and also meddled. In North Africa, the new Almohades dynasty was in the ascendant and took away most of Tunisia in the 1150s. In 1156, with papal armies having again suffered defeat, the pope at last recognized William in all his titles, while Sicily in turn recognized the pope as overlord. In the future, the popes would alternately use the Regno against the Empire, or vice versa, depending on which posed the greater danger.
When William died, his son, William II (1166-1189), was still a boy, so Margaret of Navarre became regent as Queen Mother. The boy reached his majority in 1171. William at last formed better relations with Jerusalem; a Sicilian fleet saved Tripoli from Saladin in 1187. Sicily was at its richest and most peaceful under this king.
William died without heirs. Tancred of Lecce, a powerful baron on the mainland and the illegitimate son of William's older brother, moved quickly to claim the crown. But in Apulia the barons chose Roger of Andria. Tancred was able to conquer most of Sicily, but he discredited himself when he snatched up the large treasury left by William for financing the Third Crusade. He also snagged Queen Joanna's dowry money. It was Tancred who ruled in Sicily when King Philip and King Richard came through in 1190; he and Richard quarreled quite sharply, but eventually made up. Tancred may have been able to establish himself, but he died in February 1194. He left his son, William III, to rule, but William faced a formidable rival: Emperor Henry VI.
As can be seen by the above, despite Sicily's wealth and despite the interest of the Normans in the activities of the East, the Regno did not participate directly in the Crusades except in minor ways. Roger I was too busy to get involved in the First Crusade, though Bohemond of course played a major role. Then Adelaide's marriage fiasco kept Sicily distant for several decades. It would certainly have been involved in a major way in the Third Crusade, but William II died untimely and Tancred was in no position to go off on Crusade.