Patti, Italy

... More

historical personage: Roger's third wife Adelasia of Montferrat, whose sarcophagus stands in the cathedral.

History

We meet Adalasia again in San Fratello, which had been founded by her Lombard army in the 11th century. Following the death of the Gran Conte Roger I on first January 1101 she took over the regency for her six-year-old son Roger II until he attained his majority in 1112 at the age of seventeen. In that same year 1112 she was courted by the King of the Crusaders Balduin I who had ruled since 110, even though he was still legally married to an Armenian princess living in Constantinople; he sought Adelasia's hand not solely because of her wealth but also because Norman Sicily was so important politically. As a countermove, marriage to Balduin would give Adelasia the rank of queen. The marriage contract was negotiated in 1113, when Adelasia made it a condition that, if the union produced no children, the crown of Jerusalem would pass to her son Roger II. Quoting Runciman - "In the summer of 1113 the countess sailed from Sicily with a splendor such as had not been seen since Cleopatra sailed for Kydnos to fetch Mark Anthony. In her galley, its bows decorated in gold and silver, she rested on a carpet worked in gold". Nine more ships carried her Arab bodyguard and her personal treasures.

Only four years later, however, in 1117, after he had spent her rich dowry, Balduin had the marriage annulled. Adelasia "devoid of all her riches and almost without any entourage, sailed back to Sicily filled with anger" (Runciman). In 1118, the year when Balduin also died, she died in Patti and was buried here. Later she was re-interred in a Renaissance sarcophagus, which stands in the right transept of Patti Cathedral.