Kingdom of Sicily
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Kingdom of Sicily (Template:Lang-it, Template:Lang-la, Template:Lang-ca, Template:Lang-scn) was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1861. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom covered not only the island of Sicily itself, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of southern Italy. The island was divided into three regions; Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto.
It was sometimes called the regnum Apuliae et Siciliae until 1282. In 1282 a revolt against the Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers threw off Charles of Anjou's rule of the island of Sicily. The Angevins managed to maintain control in the mainland areas of the kingdom, which eventually became known as the Kingdom of Naples, after its capital. The island became a separate kingdom, under the rule of an Aragonese dynasty. After 1302 the island kingdom was sometimes called the Kingdom of Trinacria (the English equivalent word of Trinacria is the Triangle). Often the kingship was vested in another monarch such as the King of Aragon, the King of Spain or the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1816 the Kingdom of Sicily merged with Kingdom of Naples into the newly created Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1861 its areas were united with the Kingdom of Italy.
