THE WESTERN MEDITERR~I\:E,\\1 KIN(;DOMS 1200-J',OOand to elevate him to a special place as the enlightened
despot of the thirteenth century. He has been deprived of
his real credit as the rebuilder of the damaged edifice of
Norman monarchy: a conservative reformer who made more
uniform and more workable the system of government cre-
ated by his grandfather Roger Il.~^3 In his youth the Norman
kingdom was dominated by rapacious warlords and pirates:
the German Markward von Anweiler in Palermo, the Genoese
Alamanno da Costa and Enrico Pescatore in Syracuse and
Malta. Yet, as a papal fief, the kingdom should have been
protected by its overlord, Pope Innocent III.~^1 After Con-
stance died in 1198 Frederick of Sicily was his ward. lnnocen t
did indeed try to control Markward and other despoilers,
and he even threatened a crusade against Markward in 1198-
- The governmental machine was not destroyed, however,
and it continued to produce the documents the boy king's
subjects needed; if rapacious barons were to legitimise their
seizures, it was as well to have a royal chancery which could
issue charters of confirmation. In essence what happened
was that the balance shifted awav from the monarchy towards
what had always been strong regional power expressed by
the barons and warlords.
The recovery of royal power took time, partly because
Frederick became involved in the winning of the German
crown which his father Henry had held. For several years it
was in Germany that he lived and sought to make his author-
ity meaningful. Frederick's measures against his enemies in
southern Italy only began seriously in^1220 on his return
from the north, and were vigorously prosecuted once again
from 1231. Among groups who were successfully repressed
were the Muslims of Sicily, the vast m~jority of whom were
deported to the remote Apulian stronghold of Lucera, where - David Abulafia, Fmierick If. A medieval emperor (London, 1988), as
against E. Kantorowicz, Fredn-irk the Second, I 194-1250, trans!. E.O.
Lorimer (London, 1931), on which see David Abulafia, 'Kantorowicz
and Frederick II', History, 62 ( 1977), pp. 193-21 0; A. Boureau, His-
toires d'un historien. Kantorowicz (Paris, 1990). For the beginning of
Frederick's career, see also W. Sturner, Friedrich II., vol. 1, Die KO"ni§;S-
herrschaft in Sizilien und Deutschland, 1194-1220 (Darmstadt, 1992). - T.C. van Cleve, Markward von Anweiler and thP Sicilian regency (1937);
David Abulafia, 'Henry Count of Malta and his Mediterranean activit-
ies', in Medieual Malta, eel. A.T. Luttrell (London, 1975), pp. 104-25.