THE ORIGINS OF THE SICILIAN KINGDOMvassal, and if that vassal at times seemed poised to domin-
ate all of Italy, the time had surely come to dispose of the
Hohenstaufen entirely, and to grant the Regno to a more
suitable ruler. The personal union of Germany and Sicily
must never be repeated, particularly since the German king
also exercised some sort of authority in Lombardy.
Finally, the forty years after 1220 confirmed that the ruler
of southern Italy was not likely to avoid entanglements else-
where in the Mediterranean: a marriage alliance with the
house of Aragon, another one with the Greek rulers of the
western Balkans. As under its Norman founders, the kingdom
of Sicily looked outward in all directions.