Roger I., Count of Sicily, the youngest of the 12 sons of Tancred de Hauteville of Normandy; born in that duchy in 1031. When 27 years of age he joined his famous brother Robert Guiscard in South Italy. In 1060 Roger was invited to Sicily to fight against the Saracens; he took Messina and settled a garrison there. Everywhere the Normans were welcomed by the Christians of Sicily as their deliverers from the Moslem yoke, and they won town after town, till in 1071 the Saracen capital, Palermo, was captured. Count Roger spent the rest of his life in completing the conquest of Sicily. As early as 1060 Duke Robert had given his brother the half of Calabria, with the title of count. After Robert's death (1085) Roger succeeded to his Italian possessions, and became the head of the Norman power in Southern Europe. Roger died in Mileto, Calabria, in June, 1101.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia,
1912.