Margaret, Queen of Sicily

Sometimes it takes just one strong woman to tame a pack of unruly men. Meet Margaret of Navarre, Queen of Sicily. This is the first biography of the queen who was the most powerful woman in Europe and the Mediterranean for five years during the 12th century, ruling a multicultural, multiconfessional kingdom of millions in the name of her young son, William II of Sicily. Founded by a Norman dynasty in 1130, the Kingdom of Sicily encompassed that island and nearly half the Italian peninsula. At over 500 pages, this enjoyable read is a definitive reference that has been cited in academic articles, books and dissertations. The result of research in original sources in several countries, this volume contains an extensive bibliography, hundreds of endnotes, a detailed timeline, the text of the legal code of 1140, and numerous maps and genealogical tables. Following publication of this monumental work, the author wrote the first compendium (in English) of scholarly biographies of Sicily's queens until 1266 (a 740-page volume), and a book on Sicilian queenship.