This is a very good work by Paula Hailstone that considers certain aspects of social, cultural and religious identity as factors that motivated the Hautevilles to embark on the Crusades and other adventures in what were essentially Muslim lands. This includes, of course, the Principality of Antioch ruled by this dynasty. Leaving aside a detailed discussion of ethnology, the polyglot Kingdom of Sicily was a complex, multiethnic polity, yet its Norman rulers and barons were anything but Greek or Arab, regardless of their tolerance.
The topic has been approached in connection with specific crusades (Colette Bowie, Gabrielle Storey and Jacqueline Alio have written about Joanna of England, widow of William II of Sicily, on the Third Crusade), and the early reluctance of Roger II to support crusading efforts, probably in view of his mother's mistreatment by the King of Jerusalem, is well known.
Dr Hailstone is to be commended for her rare insight into some of the complexities concerning Christianity at this time, and her astute, accurate use of "Orthodox" in describing the Eastern, Greek or Byzantine church - though I confess to using all these terms. The disgraceful Fourth Crusade, which led to the sack of Orthodox Constantinople, lies beyond the scope of this work, but it is an accurate example of the antipathy and misunderstanding that sometimes characterised the relationship between the Christians of East and West during this era. On a more sympathetic level, we find Roger II receiving Nilos Doxopatrios, a refugee from Constantinople, at the Sicilian court, where he wrote a treatise about the theological (and even political) status of the Orthodox Church about a century after the Great Schism of 1054.
So much for Sicily's Greeks. It is perhaps more difficult to reconcile the Siculo-Normans' difficult rapport with the Muslims to the south and east of the Kingdom of Sicily with the status of the Muslims within the Regnum itself. Whereas the kings were tolerant, many barons opposed Islam, if only (in some cases) out of resentment toward those in the kingdom, and thus embraced crusading. And what of the Arab Catholics of Sicily who had converted from Islam by 1190?
Most of these issues became more salient later, under the reign of Frederick II, and by then, even though Frederick himself reputedly spoke Arabic, both Islam and Orthodoxy were on the wane in the Kingdom of Sicily.
Crusading itself has come under fire in recent decades, becoming the target of retrospective umbrage. Holy wars were - and are - a nasty affair. This monograph is neither a critique nor an apologia for that medieval movement, and its focus is fact rather than theory.
In a field overwhelmed by monographs based on dissertations rooted in whimsical theses, Dr Hailstone has brought us a book that transcends a morass of confusion to approach her subject with reason, logic and skill. This book offers uncommon insight into complicated realities.
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