Tn A.D. 440 Sicily was conquered by the Van dals under Genseric. The Vandals, in their turn, were dispossessed half a century later by the Ostrogoths, in whose hands it remained till A.D. 535, when Belisarius conquered it and annexed it to the Byzantine Empire. In 827-878 the Saracens made themselves masters of the island, which flourished ender their rule. In 11161 the Normans, under Robert Guiseard and his brother Roger, engaged in the conquest of Sicily. which was completed in 1090. a few years after the death of Robert. In 1127 Roger II., Count of Sicily. was recognized as Duke of Apulia and Calabria and in 1130 he assumed the title of King of Sicily.
In 1194 the Norman rule was succeeded by that of the House of Hohenstaufen (q.v.). whose dynasty was overthrown by Charles of Anjou in 1266. In 1282, after the Sicilian Vespers (q.v.), Sicily became independent and chose for its King Pedro III. of Aragon, who was connected by marriage with the House of Hohenstaufen. lu 1296 it was separated from Aragon and for more than a century was ruled by a branch of the Aragonese dynasty. when it was reunited with that kingdom. Ferdinand the Catholic made himself master of the Kingdom of Naples in 1503. and the Spanish Crown retained both tries until the War of the Spanish Succession. By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Sicily was separated from Naples, and handed over to Victor Amadens. Duke of Savoy. who ceded it to Anstria seven years later, receiving in exchange the island of Sardinia. In 1734-35 Don Carlos estab
lished the Spanish Bourbon dynasty in Naples and Sicily (the Two Sicilies ), and down to 1860 Sicily was ruled by Bourbon kings. (See Two SICILIES, KINGDOM OF THE.) In 1860 Garibaldi's invasion (see ITALY; GARIBALDI) resulted in the annexation of Sicily to the dominions of Victor Emmanuel, which in 1861 became the Kingdom of Italy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Hare, cities of Southern Daly Bibliography. Hare, cities of Southern Daly and Sicily (London, 1883) ; Colajanni. Gli acaenicivifi di Sicilia e le loco cause (2d ed., Palermo. 1896) ; San Giuliano. Le condizioni prescnti della, Sicilia (Milan, 1896) ; Paton. Pic turesque Sicily (New York, 1S9S) ; Capuana, L'isola dcl sole (Catania, 1898) ; Sladen, In. Sicily, 18964000 ( London, 1901) ; Rumpelt, and die Siciliancr (Berlin, I902) ; Holm, Gcschichte Sicilicns ins .4 Itertum (Leipzig, 1S70 98) ; Freeman, History of Sicily (Oxford, 1891 9I) ; Hodgkin, 1 tuly and ller Invaders ( ib., 1880-85) ; Bracci, storiehe intorno al yorcrno di Sicilia del 1815 cells dittatura di Gari baldi (Salerno, 1870) ; Di ilarzo, /Ty periodo di Sicilia dal 177'i al 1860; l'aterno, Sagyio stor ieo politico deIla Sicilia dal emninciare dcd secolo XI X. lino al 1830 (Catania, 1848) ; La Farina, Storia doeunientata della riroluzione di Sicilia nel 1848-49 (Capolago, 1851).