Roger I (c. 1031 – 22 June 1101), nicknamed Roger Bosso and The Great Count, was a Norman nobleman who became the first Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was a member of the House of Hauteville, and his descendants in the male line continued to rule Sicily down to 1194.
Roger was born in Normandy, and came to southern Italy as a young man in 1057. He participated in several military expeditions against the Emirate of Sicily beginning in 1061. He was invested with part of Sicily and the title of count by his brother, Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, in 1071. By 1090, he had conquered the entire island. In 1091, he conquered Malta. The state he created was merged with the Duchy of Apulia in 1127 and became the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130.
Sources:
-Brown, Gordon - The Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily, (McFarland & Co, 2003)
-Ibn al-Athir - The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period, Part 1, trans. D.S. Richards (Ashgate, 2005)
-Norwich, John Julius - The Normans in the South, 1016-1130 (London, 1967)
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