This article is about the specific polity Kingdom of Sicily and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
Was a Kingdom that emerged from the union of the county of Sicily (that controlled Sicily and Malta) with the Norman possessions in southern Italy (that included the entire southern Italian Peninsula south to the Papal States, the same region of the later Kingdom of Naples). In 1282 a revolt against the Angevin rule (the Sicilian Vespers) divided the kingdom in two, the Kingdom of Sicily being reduced again to the sole island of the same name. After Sicily entered into a Personal Union with Aragon in 1479, the Kingdom was always controlled by an external country. It ceased to exist in 1816 when it was merged with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Establishment
December 1130: On September 27, 1130, a bull from the antipope Anacletus II made Roger of Sicily King of of the Island. Roger's coronation took place in Palermo on December 25, 1130.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Were a series of wars between the Byzantines and the Normans in southern italy and the Balkan Peninsula.
1.1.Norman conquest of southern Italy
Were a series of military campaigns by Norman forces that slowly conquered southern Italy from the Bizyntine Empire and from local Lombard rulers.
1.1.1.Norman conquest of the Duchy of Amalfi
The Duchy of Amalfi is conquered by the Normans.
January 1131: Amalfi revolted against the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130.
January 1132: The Duchy of Amalfi was subdued by the Normans in 1131.
1.1.2.Norman Conquest of Naples
The Duchy of Naples is conquered by the Normans.
October 1137: On 30 October 1137, the last Duke of Naples died in the king's service at the Battle of Rignano. The defeat at Rignano enabled the Norman conquest of Naples, since Sergius died without heir and the Neapolitan nobility could not reach a succession agreement.
1.2.Second Norman invasion of the Balkans
Was an invasion launched by the Normans of south Italy in Byzantine territories in the Balkans.
January 1148: In 1147 the Byzantine empire under Manuel I Comnenus was faced with war by Roger II of Sicily, whose fleet had captured the Byzantine island of Corfu.
January 1150: In 1149, Byzantine emperor Manuel recovered Corfu.
1.3.Manuel I's invasion of Italy
Was a military campaign by Byzantine Emperor Manuel I in southern Italy, at the time controlled by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.
January 1156: In 1155 the byzantine emperor Manuel sent a fleet to Italy which managed to recover Ancona and then all of Apulia.
June 1156: William of Sicily and his army landed on the peninsula and destroyed the Greek fleet (4 ships) and army at Brindisi on May 28, 1156 and recovered Bari.
January 1159: In 1158 Manuel I Komnenos signed a peace treaty with William I which led to the withdrawal of Byzantine troops from Italy.
1.4.Third Norman invasion of the Balkans
Was an invasion launched by the Normans of south Italy in Byzantine territories in the Balkans.
August 1185: Sack of Thessalonica by Sicilian forces.
October 1185: At the end of the summer the great Norman fleet had to return to Sicily, leaving the territories conquered in Greece during 1185.
January 1186: Byzantine Emperor Andronicos Komnenos allowed the Normans to occupy southern Epirus and northern Greece without resistance.
January 1187: A reinforced Byzantine field army under Alexios Branas decisively defeated the Normans at the Battle of Demetritzes. Following this battle Thessalonica was speedily recovered and the Normans were pushed back to Italy.
Were the conquests of Abd al-Mu'min, founder of the Moroccan Almohad Caliphate.
2.1.Almohad conquest of Norman Africa
Was the invasion of Norman Africa by the Almohads, which put an end to the presence of the Normans in the region.
January 1159: In 1158, the Almohad Caliphate conquered all of Norman Africa except for Mahdia.
A major medieval battle fought on 26 February 1266, near Benevento in present-day Southern Italy, between the forces of Charles I of Anjou and those of King Manfred of Sicily. Manfred's defeat and death resulted in Charles' conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily, effectively ending the rule of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.
February 1266: A major medieval battle was fought on 26 February 1266, near Benevento in present-day Southern Italy, between the forces of Charles I of Anjou and those of King Manfred of Sicily. Manfred's defeat and death resulted in Charles' conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily, effectively ending the rule of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.
Was a rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou, leading to the expulsion fo his troops from the island.
April 1282: After the Sicilian Vespers, Sicily was governed by the Aragonese dynasty as an independent state while southern Italy became the kingdom of Naples.
Were a series of conflicts between France and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of great European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France - later the First French Empire - and its allies.
5.1.War of the Second Coalition
Was the second war that saw revolutionary France against most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria, and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join this coalition, and Spain supported France.
January 1799: In 1799, Napoleon conquered Naples, forcing King Ferdinand and the court to flee to Sicily, where Ferdinand established a separate state on the island.
June 1799: The Parthenopean Republic existed from 21 January to 13 June 1799, collapsing when Ferdinand returned to restore monarchial authority. Sicily reverted to a dependency of Naples.
5.2.War of the Third Coalition
Was a European conflict spanning the years 1805 to 1806. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, made up of the United Kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral during the war.
5.2.1.French invasion of Naples
In 1806 the French army invaded the Kingdom of Naples, which was soon conquered. The Bourbon King of Naples, Ferdinand IV fled to Sicily.
March 1806: The Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples (formally the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) was a state founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in December 1805, when French troops occupied the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples.
5.3.War of the Seventh Coalition (The Hundred Days)
Napoleon escaped the exile he had been forced after the War of the Sixth Coalition and reorganized the French army. He was defeated by a coalition that included Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia and sent into permanent exile on the island of Saint Helena.
5.3.1.Neapolitan War
Was a conflict between the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples and the Austrian Empire during the War of the Seventh Coalition. Naples, which was still ruled by the Napoleonic general Joachim Murat, decided to side with Napoleon. The Austrian won the war and reinstated Ferdinand IV as King of Naples and Sicily.
May 1815: Murat's joint campaign was definitively wrecked on 4 May 1815, after the Austrians defeated him in the battle of Tolentino: finally, with the Treaty of Casalanza, signed at Capua on 20 May 1815 by the Austrian and Murat generals, the kingdom of Naples thus returned to the crown Bourbon, with King Ferdinand who returned to Naples on 7 June.
January 1141: The Kingdom of Sicily occupied the settlement of Djidjelli.
January 1141: In 1140, after several decades of penetration and consolidation of the Norman presence in the region, Pescara was definitively conquered together with the rest of Abruzzo by the Norman king Roger II, being annexed to the nascent Kingdom of Sicily.
January 1141: The Duchy of Gaeta is annexed to the kingdom of Sicily in 1140.
January 1144: Norman conquest of the County of Marsi.
April 1155: Bari surrendered to the Byzantines, and in Andria William's Sicilian army was decimated.
November 1155: On September 29, 1155, the Pope joined the Byzantines in the war, and set out with his army: in a very short time, the Byzantines and the Pope conquered all of Puglia and Campania.
November 1156: William of Sicily reorganized his army, and with only one battle lost for the Byzantines, all the territories lost to the Byzantines and to the Papal States were reconquered.
January 1157: In 1059 the County of Aversa was conquered by the Normans. In 1156 it was then definitively absorbed by the Kingdom of Sicily.
July 1185: A Norman expedition, under the command of Tancredi, landed in Durazzo in June 1185.
January 1195: Personal union of the Kingdom of Sicily with the Holy Roman Empire.
January 1255: With the death of Conrad IV of Germany, the Personal Union of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire ended.
November 1257: While Michael was successfully operating in the east, Epirus was suddenly attacked from the west. At the end of 1257, Manfred of Sicily occupied the Ionian Islands in a coup,.
July 1258: Sicialian forces landed on the Albanian coast and took the cities of Aulona, Durazzo and Berat.
January 1260: Manfred of Sicily launched an invasion into Albania. His forces, led by Philip Chinard, captured Durrës, Berat, Vlorë, Spinarizza and their surroundings and the southern coastline of Albania from Vlorë to Butrint.
January 1285: In 1284, the Aragonese ruler Frederick III, who had recently taken control of Sicily, invaded Djerba and maintained control of the territory until 1333. This marked a period of Aragonese dominance in the region.
January 1334: In 1284, Frederick III of Aragon, who was the ruler of Sicily, invaded Djerba and held control of the territory until 1333. This marked a period of Aragonese dominance in the region before the territory was eventually taken over by the Hafsid Kingdom.
January 1390: Djerba was retaken for Sicily by Manfredi Chiaramonte, who became lord of the island, and also seized the Kerkennah Islands.
January 1393: The Sicilian garrison abandoned Kerkennah Islands and Djerba in 1392.
January 1410: Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives or cadet branch of the house of Aragon until 1409 and thence as part of the Crown of Aragon.
Disestablishment
May 1815: Murat's joint campaign was definitively wrecked on 4 May 1815, after the Austrians defeated him in the battle of Tolentino: finally, with the Treaty of Casalanza, signed at Capua on 20 May 1815 by the Austrian and Murat generals, the kingdom of Naples thus returned to the crown Bourbon, with King Ferdinand who returned to Naples on 7 June.
Kingdom of Sicily
