RUGGERO II, king of SICILY. — Son of Ruggero I and Adelaide del Monferrato, born in 1095; after losing his father in 1101, he remained under his mother’s tutelage. A vigorous statesman, as soon as he came of age R. II began a policy of Mediterranean expansion, which he suspended when the childless death of the last duke of Puglia, Guglielmo, offered him the possibility of succeeding to his possessions, not without opposition.
Onorio II attempted to oppose the disruption of the balance among the three Norman states of Sicily, Puglia, and Capua, and placed himself at the head of a coalition that brought together the Normans of Capua and the lords of Puglia who were hostile to R.; but, defeated in battle, he was forced to grant him the investiture of the Duchy of Puglia. After also defeating the rebellious nobles of Puglia, R. convened a diet at Melfi and issued a series of measures intended to ensure peace in his new dominions. To prepare for his elevation to royal dignity, with the approval of his most faithful supporters, he joined the antipope Anacleto II and was solemnly crowned in Palermo on 25 December 1130. But the bull that extended his royal authority from Sicily and Puglia to the Principality of Capua and its dependencies brought against him a coalition promoted by Pope Innocenzo II, in which, alongside the princes of Capua, entered the Emperor of the East and that of the West, in the name of their respective rights or claims, as well as the maritime republics of Pisa and Venice, concerned by Norman expansion in the Mediterranean. After nine years of war and anarchy, R. succeeded in isolating and defeating Innocenzo II, who recognized and confirmed his royal title (22 July 1139), while Roberto di Capua abandoned the principality. Having thus unified southern Italy, R. resumed his program of Mediterranean expansion with a series of successful expeditions against North Africa, which he succeeded in occupying from Tripoli to Capo Bon, and with operations against the Byzantine Empire. He died in Palermo on 26 February 1145.
R. presented himself as the successor of the Basileus and continued the tradition, styling himself and crowned by God, and even having himself represented in a mosaic receiving the crown directly from Christ Poniacerator. At the Diet of Ariano he clearly expressed his conception of his sovereignty by presenting his great men with a series of laws known as the Assise di Ariano, which provided for the reorganization of public and criminal law throughout the Kingdom.