Roger III of Sicily

Who was Roger III of Sicily?

Roger III was the son and heir of Tancred of Sicily by Sibylla of Acerra. He was made duke of Apulia, probably in 1189, at his father's succession.

In 1193, his father, King Tancred, arranged his marriage to Irene Angelina, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos. Tancred then had his son Roger crowned. Roger died at the end of that same year, shortly before his father's death on the February 20, 1194. His younger brother William III assumed the throne of Sicily under the regency of their mother Sibylla of Acerra.

On the November 20, 1194, Henry VI von Hohenstaufen, King of Germany and Emperor of Rome, entered Palermo, Sicily, and on December 25 William was stripped of his title. In 1197 Roger's widow, Irene, married Henry VI's brother Philip of Swabia.