Investigating Medieval Sicilians

A study of the genetic make-up of the medieval population of Sicily is reported upon by Phys.org

The evidence across something like a millennium indicates a complex pattern of migration and also mixing of ethnic groupings. This complements and confirms the historic and cultural evidence of the island being at the cultural crossroads of the Mediterranean for centuries.

The article can be read at Sicily remained a medieval melting pot despite major political and religious upheavals, ancient DNA reveals

I would disagree with the final comments in the article that Sicily became part of the Holy Roman Empire. More accurately it came under the rule of the Holy Roman Emperor as King of Sicily from 1194 to 1250, but not part of the Empire as such. The formal territory of the Empire extended as far south as the Papal States, or could be seen to include them, but no further south. 

The arms of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 

1816-1861

 

Image: Wikimedia

The complexity of the armorial bearings reflects the complex history of the two kingdoms and the engagement of many dynasties with their governance from the high middle ages onwards.

Today there is still a tendency, perhaps a strong one, to see Sicily as the European back-of-beyond, poor, corrupt, run by the mafia, nestling under a volcano - nice for the occasional holiday but not somewhere to spend a long time.

This is in part a consequence of the unification of Italy, when the north asset-stripped the south and stationed troops for decades in the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to keep it compliant. It might have been a useful stepping stone in 1943 for the Allies, but the post 1945 division of Europe rendered it once more a run-down region dreaming dreams of its past as it decayed and was a dubious political fiefdom in the post 1946 Italian state.

 In the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries however it was vibrant society, linking Western Europe to the Byzantine Empire, and to the Crusader states in the Holy Land, with strong ties to Spain and the North African coast. The art and architecture of these centuries is amazing and it was a wealthy society. There is little wonder that it was the especial jewel in the crown of the Emperor Frederick II, and coveted by other monarchs in the decades and centuries following his death.

I do recommend the works of John Julius Norwich “The Normans in the South” and “The Kingdom in the Sun”, David Abulafia’s “Emperor Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor”, and for the later centuries Harold Acton’s two very detailed volumes on “The Bourbons of Naples 1734-1825” and “The Last Bourbons of Naples 1825-1861” and Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa’s “The Leopard”.

The Kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily in 1794

Image: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps