Kingdom of Sicily

State · 1139–1384 CE · at its largest around 1147 CE

Kingdom founded by the Norman Roger II in 1130 covering Sicily and southern Italy, later ruled by the Hohenstaufen; after the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 the island and mainland split.

On its lands while it lasted

• Roger II of Sicily (1095 CE – 1154 CE): Norman king of Sicily whose court at Palermo blended Latin, Greek and Arab culture.
• Thomas Aquinas (1225 CE – 1274 CE): Dominican friar and theologian whose Summa Theologica synthesised Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine.
• Rabban Bar Sauma’s journey from Beijing to Europe (c. 1275–1288 CE): A Church of the East monk born near Khanbaliq, Bar Sauma set out on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was later sent by the Ilkhan Arghun as envoy to Constantinople, Rome, Paris and Gascony to seek an alliance against the Mamluks.
• Black Death (1346–1353 CE): Bubonic plague pandemic that reached Europe through Mediterranean ports such as Messina in 1347 and killed an estimated third to half of Europe's population.

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