In Sicily, the Normans were called in by Ibn-a-Thumnah, the Muslim lord of Syracuse and Catania. Like the Greeks, the Arab lords were always fighting one other for the supremacy over their territories.
And once when Ibn-at-Thumnah was beaten by the Arab lord of Catania, he asked the Normans for help.
At the same time Pope Nicholas II decided to reconquer all the territories in the South of Italy still in the hands of the Arabs.
He called upon a group of "mercenaries" from the Northwest of France (the Normans), and he promised them sovereignty over Sicily if they managed to chase out the "infidels".
In response the French Count Roger of Hauteville with his knights came to conquer the island. From Messina, he conquered all the Arab cities, one by one. The Arabs were not able to make a common front against them. For thirty more years, heavy fighting went on all over Sicily.
In 1130 the Norman Roger II was crowned King in Palermo, and Sicily was united with the Southern part of Italy.
Roger was probably the wealthiest ruler in Europe, and his court in Palermo the most brilliant. Meanwhile Messina flourished as a supply base for the Crusaders. His successors were William I, the Bad, and William II, the Good, who died without a male heir. So that his aunt, Constance Altavilla, daughter of Roger II, became the only heir of the Norman Kingdom.
