County and Nobility in Norman Italy: Aristocratic Agency in the Kingdom of Sicily, 1130–1189

Whilst historians often regard the Norman Kingdom of Sicily as centralised and administratively advanced, County and Nobility in Norman Italy counters this traditional interpretation; far from centralised and streamlined, this book reveals how the genesis and social structures of the kingdom were constantly fraught between the forces of royal power and local aristocracy authority. The result of thorough research conducted on the vast source material for the history of this fascinating twelfth-century world, this book sheds important new light on medieval Italy.