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

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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. In doing so, Hervin Fernandez-Aceves sheds important new light on medieval Italy. This book is the result of thorough research conducted on the vast source material for the history of this fascinating 12th-century world. Starting with the activities of Norman counts and the configuration of the counties, it explores how social control operated in these nodes of regional authority, and argues that the Sicilian monarchy relied on the counties (and the counts' authority) to keep the realm united and exercise control.

Reviews

This study offers a much-needed and important contribution to our understanding of the functioning of the 12th-Century Kingdom of Sicily. Its detailed analysis and prosopographies of the upper aristocracy and counties within the kingdom clearly highlights the nuances of the evolving relationship between nobility and monarchy. It will serve as a significant point of reference for further research * Paul Oldfield, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Manchester, UK *
This impressive work is a valuable contribution to scholarship on social and political structures in Norman Italy. Through systematic and prosopographical analysis Fernndez-Aceves illuminates the composition and actions, continuities and discontinuities of the Italo-Norman nobility. The complexities of the comital class and county organization challenge prevailing narratives about central authority in the Kingdom of Sicily * Joanna H. Drell, Professor of History, University of Richmond Richmond, USA *

Author Bio

Hervin Fernndez-Aceves is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Lancaster, UK. He was educated at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), at the Central European University and at the University of Leeds. He has been an Overseas Fellow of the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and a Rome Awardee at the British School at Rome.