rat, that
is, I suppose, count of Acerra. This Robert Guiscard, after having
done many and noble things in Apulia, purposed and desired, by way of
devotion, to go to Jerusalem on pilgrimage; and it was told him in a
vision that he would die in Jerusalem. Therefore, having commended his
kingdom to Roger, his son, he embarked by sea for the voyage to
Jerusalem, and arriving in Greece, at the port which was afterwards
called after him Port Guiscard, he began to sicken of his malady; and
trusting in the revelation which had been made to him, he in no wise
feared to die. There was over against the said port an island, to the
which, that he might repose and recover his strength, he caused
himself to be carried, and after being carried there he grew no
better, but rather grievously worse. Then he asked what this island
was called, and the mariners answered that of old it was called
Jerusalem. Which thing having heard, straightway certified of his
death, devoutly he fulfilled all those things which appertain to the
salvation of the soul, and died in the grace of God the year of Christ
1110, having reigned in Apulia thirty-three years. These things
concerning Robert Guiscard may in part be read in chronicles, and in
part I heard them narrated by those who fully knew the history of the
kingdom of Apulia.

Sec. 20.--_Concerning the successors of Robert Guiscard which were kings
of Sicily and of Apulia._

[Sidenote: Par. iii. 109-120. Purg. iii. 112, 113. Par. xx. 62.]

[Sidenote: Par. iii. 112-120.]

[Sidenote: 1197 A.D.]

Afterwards, Roger, son of Duke Robert Guiscard, begat the second
Roger; and this Roger, after the death of his father, was made king of
Sicily, and he begat William, and Constance his sister. This William
honourably and magnificently ruled the kingdom of Sicily, and he took
to wife the daughter of the king of England, and by her he had neither
son nor daughter; and when his father Roger was dead, and the
sovereignty of the kingdom had passed to William, a prophecy was made
known, that Constance, his sister, should rule over the realm of
Sicily in destruction and ruin; wherefore King William, having called
his friends and wise men, asked counsel of them what he should do with
his sister Constance; and it was counselled him by the greater part of
them that if he desired the royal sovereignty should be secure, he
should cause her to be put to death. But among the others was one
named Tancred, duke of Taren