THE CREATION OF THE MONARCHY

The Norman monarchy was established in the novel situation created by the general acceptance of Roger II's succession to the duchy of Apulia, but the idea of making Roger king did not emerge until 1130. It did not command universal approval, and Roger's enemies contested his pretensions for nearly thirty years. No other medieval kingdom had such strange birth pangs. Whatever hostility this plan provoked in different quarters, King Roger II (1130–54) and his son, William I (1154–66), showed unshakable faith in the possibility of holding their conglomeration of lands together as a kingdom. Although it is not surprising that the story of the monarchy's foundation is told in terms of the heroic pertinacity of these two kings in the face of persistent petty-minded opposition, there has to be more to the explanation of its ultimate success than the personal qualities of Roger and his son.

One of the critical factors throughout the monarchy's history was the attitude of the papacy. The ultimate weakness of papal resistance to it in the twelfth century was as important to its formation as the strength of the papacy in the thirteenth century proved to be for the annihilation of the Norman dynasty in 1266. Because the papacy was the most determined of the monarchy's opponents from first to last, it is paradoxical that it actually owed its inception to the altogether exceptional circumstances of Anacletus II, the Roman pope, who himself was forced to seek Roger's support in 1130.