Norman kingdoms of Italy and Sicily Faced with the reconquest of North Africa by the Almohads and other threats to his power, Roger II gradually became less tolerant to the Muslims of Sicily Norman power began to wane under William, Roger’s successor He did not have the same energy for statecraft as his father Even as the first stage of Norman rule went into decline, a new leader soon emerged from a marriage between a Sicilian and the ruler of Germany, a leader who would bring Sicily and Italy back into an age of cultural brilliance Frederick II (1194–1250) ushered in the next great era of southern Italian history As son of Constance of Sicily, he had Norman blood He was also son of Henry IV, a German king and Roman emperor As the Normans before him, he had a difficult relationship with the church Despite his strong crusading spirit, he was excommunicated by a papacy concerned about the unification of Italy and threats to the Papal States He was crowned emperor of Jerusalem in 1229, establishing a state that was largely tolerant of different religious faiths Inspired by the multireligious culture of Sicily, he created a rare and brilliant era of peace in Jerusalem 311 Like his Norman predecessors Frederick was very much a man of the Mediterranean Far from a provincial German ruler, or a Norman barbarian, he was steeped in the international cultures of Islam, Judaism, and the Greek church as well as the Roman church It could easily be argued that the cultural patronage and openness of the Norman kings and their defiance of papal authority helped build the foundations of the Italian Renaissance and the birth of humanism See also Byzantine Empire: political history; Norman Conquest of England; Norman and Plantagenet kings of England Further reading: Ahmad, Aziz A History of Islamic Sicily Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1975; Johns, Jeremy Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002; Matthew, Donald The Norman Kingdom of Sicily New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992; Wolf, Kenneth Making History: The Normans and their Historians Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995 Allen Fromherz