Roger I

Roger I (circa 1031-1101), Norman conqueror of Sicily. Born in Normandy (Normandie), Roger joined his elder brother Robert Guiscard in southern Italy (1057), helping him to win control of that region from the Byzantines. In 1061 he and Robert captured the Sicilian town of Messina from its Muslim rulers, and over the next three decades Roger gradually extended Norman power at the expense of the various Muslim states on the island, completing conquest of Sicily in 1091. While Robert was alive, the brothers shared control of both Sicily and the Italian mainland; after his death in 1085, Roger made himself ruler of Sicily, leaving the other Norman domains to Robert's son, Roger of Apulia. He adopted the title of count and was made papal legate in Sicily by Pope Urban II in 1098. Roger introduced Catholicism into Sicily but was tolerant of his Muslim and Greek Orthodox subjects. His son, Roger II, founded the kingdom of Sicily.