A Norman king's coronation mantle carries an Arabic blessing and Persian Gulf pearls
In Vienna's Imperial Treasury hangs a red silk cloak later used to crown Holy Roman Emperors. Its gold embroidery includes an Arabic inscription dated by the Islamic calendar, and thousands of Persian Gulf pearls outline its lions. It was made in Palermo for Roger II, the Norman who turned Sicily into a kingdom.
Roger was born in 1095 at Mileto in Calabria, the youngest son of Roger I, Count of Sicily and brother of Robert Guiscard. His father died in 1101 and his elder brother Simon in 1105, leaving nine-year-old Roger as count under the regency of his mother, Adelaide del Vasto, helped by officials such as the Greek emir of Palermo. Icelandic sagas claim the Norwegian king Sigurd the Crusader, visiting in 1110, hailed him as king of Sicily two decades early. He began ruling in person at 16.
When his cousin Duke William II of Apulia died childless in 1127, Roger claimed all the family's mainland lands. Pope Honorius II preached a crusade against him, but the coalition collapsed and in 1128 the pope made him Duke of Apulia. After Honorius died in 1130 and two rival popes emerged, Roger backed Anacletus II, who rewarded him with a crown; he was crowned King of Sicily in Palermo on Christmas Day 1130. That choice brought a decade of war, with Bernard of Clairvaux denouncing him as a half-heathen king and the rulers of France, England and the Empire lining up against him, while southern Italian barons revolted repeatedly. He lost a battle at Nocera in 1132 but held on.
His mantle shows the mixed world of his court. The red silk came from Byzantium, the enamels are Byzantine work, and the embroidery, with its Kufic script, was probably stitched by Muslim craftsmen in a royal workshop. Its inscription, dated year 528 of the Islamic calendar, or 1133 to 1134, wishes the wearer luck, majesty and victory, which means it was made after his coronation. Two lions each overpower a camel beside a palm tree, a symbol of the victory of his new dynasty.
Roger later added a title as King of Africa in 1148, and he died on 26 February 1154.
Source: Roger II of Sicily
