Roger I of Sicily

Roger I of Sicily
Roger I as he appears on a trifollaro minted at Mileto
Born	c. 1031–1040
Died	22 June 1101(1101-06-22)
Spouse(s)	Judith d'Évreux Eremburga of Mortain Adelaide del Vasto
Parent(s)	Tancred of Hauteville Fredisenda

Roger I (c. 1031 – 22 June 1101), nicknamed Roger Bosso and The Great Count, was a Norman nobleman who became the first Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was a member of the House of Hauteville, and his descendants in the male line continued to rule Sicily down to 1194.

Roger was born in Normandy, and came to southern Italy as a young man in 1057. He participated in several military expeditions against the Emirate of Sicily beginning in 1061. He was invested with part of Sicily and the title of count by his brother, Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, in 1071. By 1090, he had conquered the entire island. In 1091, he conquered Malta. The state he created was merged with the Duchy of Apulia in 1127 and became the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130.

Roger was the youngest son of Tancred of Hauteville by his second wife Fredisenda. Roger arrived in Southern Italy in the summer of 1057. The Benedictine monk, Geoffrey Malaterra, who compares Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger to "Joseph and Benjamin of old," said of Roger:

"He was a youth of the greatest beauty, of lofty stature, of graceful shape, most eloquent in speech and cool in counsel. He was far-seeing in arranging all his actions, pleasant and merry all with men; strong and brave, and furious in battle."

In 1057 he shared the conquest of nearly all of Calabria excepting Reggio with his brother Robert. For a time Roger lived like a bandit in his castle of Scalea, near Cosenza. In a treaty of 1062, the brothers divided the conquest so that each was to have half of every castle and town in Calabria.