Un reino al sol

On Christmas Day 1130, Roger de Hauteville, descendant of the famous Roberto Guiscardo, became the first king of Sicily. Its coronation began a golden age when the island established itself as a cosmopolitan melting pot characterized by great tolerance and culture. However, only sixty-four years later, in 1194, the sun went down in Norman Sicily. In this volume, John Julius Norwich presents the story of the happiest and most glorious time that the Italian island has lived. Great characters like Saint Bernard, a man full of magnetism but insufferable, walk through these pages; the monarchs Guillermo the Bad and the Good; the bastard King Tancredo, as well as the great Ricardo Corazón de León, and we go into great moments in history, such as the Second Crusade or the violent papal schisms that gripped Christendom. With his usual erudition and a fine irony, John Julius Norwich offers us in this work, born from his fascination with the Italian island, the story of the rise and fall of the great Norman kingdom in Sicily. A Kingdom in the Sun is a masterful account of one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of the Mediterranean, a magnificent guide for the traveler and a masterpiece of the profession of historian.