Kingdom in the Sun, 1130-1194 : The Normans in Sicily Volume II

When on Christmas Day 1130 Roger de Hauteville was crowned first King of Sicily the island entered a golden age. Norman and Italian Greek and Arab Lombard Englishman and Jew all contributed to a culture that was fantastically cosmopolitan; and to an atmosphere of racial and religious toleration unparalleled in Europe. But sixty-four years later to the day when the bastard King Tancred was defeated the sun set on the Sicilian Kingdom. In this second volume of John Julius Norwich's scintillating history of the Normans in Sicily Norwich describes the 'happiest and most glorious chapter of the island's history.'