Sibylla of Acerra

Sibylla of Acerra.

Sibylla of Acerra (1153–1205) was the wife and queen consort of Tancred, Count of Lecce and King of Sicily (reigned 1189–1194). She was the regent in 1194 for her son William III of Sicily. She was the sister of Count Richard of Acerra.

It was Queen Sibylla who, as regent, when the Emperor Henry VI crossed the Straits of Messina in Autumn 1194, negotiated an agreement whereby the young William III, now whisked off to safety, should retain the county of Lecce. Henry and his wife Constance, Sibylla's aunt-in-law, had been claiming the Kingdom of Sicily since Tancred's accession.

Sibylla attended the consequent coronation of Henry in the Cathedral of Palermo. Days after the coronation, Queen Sibylla, along with her erstwhile supporters Nicholas of Ajello, Archbishop of Salerno, and Margaritus of Brindisi, was arrested and imprisoned in Germany with her son and daughter. She managed to escape to France while Pope Innocent III petitioned Henry for her release.

Sibylla's children with Tancred were:

• Roger III, duke of Apulia and king of Sicily
• William III, duke of Apulia and king of Sicily
• Maria (also called Albinia), countess of Lecce after the death of her brother; married firstly Walter III of Brienne, secondly Giacomo Sanseverino, Count of Tricario, and thirdly Tigrini Guidi, Count of Modigliano (or Count Palatine in Tuscany?)
• Constance, married Pietro Ziani, later Doge of Venice
• Medania
• Valdrada, married Giacomo Tello, Venetian noblemen

Sources

• Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.
• Matthew, Donald. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Cambridge University Press: 1992.