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The following is a list of monarchs of Sicily.
Counts of Sicily
Sicily was granted, pending its Christian reconquest, to Robert Guiscard as "duke" in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II. The Guiscard granted it as a county to his brother Roger.
Hauteville Dynasty, 1071–1130
Kings of Sicily
Roger II received royal investiture from Antipope Anacletus II in 1130 and recognition from Pope Innocent II in 1139. Sicily, which by then comprised not only the island, but also the southern third of the Italian peninsula, rapidly expanded itself to include Malta and the Mahdia, the latter if only briefly.
Constance was married to the Emperor Henry VI and he pressed his claim to the kingdom from William II's death, but only succeeded in displacing his wife's family in 1194.
Manfred was regent of Sicily for his nephew, the child Conrad II ("Conradin"), but took the crown in 1258, and continued to fight to keep the kingdom under the Hohenstaufen. In 1254 the pope, having declared the kingdom a papal possession, offered the crown to the King of England's son, Edmund Crouchback, but the English never succeeded in taking the kingdom. In 1262 the pope reversed his previous decision and granted the kingdom to the King of France's brother, Charles of Anjou, who succeeded in dispossessing Manfred in 1266. Conradin continued his claim to the throne until his death by decapitation perpetrated by Charles of Anjou in 1268.
Edmund's claim to Sicily, though taken very seriously by both him and his father, was completely ineffectual.
Peter III of Aragon, Manfred's son in law, of the House of Barcelona, conquered the island of Sicily from Charles I in 1282 and had himself crowned King of Sicily. Thereafter the old Kingdom of Sicily was centred on the mainland, with capital at Naples, and although informally called Kingdom of Naples it was still known formally as "Kingdom of Sicily". Thus, there were two "Sicilies" — the island kingdom, however, was often called "Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or "Trinacria", by terms of a treaty between the two states.
Aragonese Kings of Sicily (Trinacria), 1282–1409
Martin I died heirless and the kingdom was inherited by his father who united it to the Crown of Aragon
Aragonese direct rule, 1409–1516
Spanish direct rule, 1516–1713
At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, by the Treaty of Utrecht, Sicily was ceded to the Duke of Savoy
House of Savoy, 1713–1720
The Spanish invaded the kingdom in 1718 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. The Duke of Savoy ceded it to Austria in 1720 by the Treaty of The Hague.
Austrian direct rule, 1720–1735
Conquered by the Spanish during the War of the Polish Succession the kingdom was ceded together with Naples to a cadet son of the King of Spain.
House of Bourbon 1735–1816
In 1816 the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily were merged as the new Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
See also
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