GENERAL CONCLUSION
The history of the 'Sicilian Question' is one of early successes,
as a small group of conquerors from far away in Normandy
created and briefly sustained one of the richest and most
intensively governed kingdoms within the Roman obedience.
The seeds of crisis can be seen in these early successes; the
wealth of the kingdom attracted new conquerors, with claims
of varying validity, from Germany and from France, while the
German claim itself generated that of the house of Barcelona,
whose queen was of Hohenstaufen descent. Intensive gov-
ernment, or 'over-government', bred resentment within the
kingdom, especially among those who had never been con-
quered, notably the settlers, often of Italian origin, who had
arrived to replace the old Muslim population of the island
of Sicily. The Mediterranean frontier was an area in which
expectations of light taxation and moderate obligations to
one's lord were widespread; indeed, the franchises offered
to settlers were a major incentive, attracting newcomers
who still had to face the perils of long journeys and the pain
of leaving their original homes and families to seek their
fortune elsewhere.
The newcomers into Sicily also included increasing
numbers of Catalan merchants, and even if it was not they
but their king who made the decision to take Sicily from the
house of Anjou, the creation of a complex networks of trade
routes linking Sicily to Spain, north Mrica and the other
Mediterranean islands brought prosperity to Barcelona and
kept the Catalan capital as well as Majorca well supplied
with essential foodstuffs. Catalans, Genoese and Tuscans vied
to supply Sicily and southern Italy with high quality textiles
required at princely courts. The importance of the region