William II of Sicily

William II
William II offering the Monreale Cathedral to the Virgin Mary.
King of Sicily
Reign	7 May 1166- 11 November 1189
Predecessor	William I
Successor	Tancred
Born	1155
Died	11 November 1189
Burial	Cathedral of Palermo, Sicily
Spouse	Joan of England
House	Hauteville
Father	William I of Sicily
Mother	Margaret of Navarre

William II (1155 – 11 November 1189), called the Good (Sicilian: lu Bonu), was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. William's character is very indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy. Champion of the papacy and in secret league with the Lombard cities he was able to defy the common enemy, Frederick I Barbarossa. In the Divine Comedy, Dante places William II in Paradise. He is also referred to in Boccaccio's Decameron (tale IV.4, where he reportedly has two children, and tale V.7).

William was only eleven years old at the death of his father William I, when he was placed under the regency of his mother, Margaret of Navarre. Until the king was declared adult in 1171 the government was controlled first by the chancellor Stephen du Perche (1166–1168), cousin of Margaret, and then by Walter Ophamil, archbishop of Palermo, and Matthew of Ajello, the vice-chancellor.

In 1174 and 1175 William made treaties with Genoa and Venice and his marriage in February 1177 with Joan, daughter of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, marks his high position in European politics. This was not his first attempted marriage; an earlier effort by Bertrand II, archbishop of Trani, to negotiate the hand of a Byzantine princess yielded no fruit.