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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2001-07 > 0994036376


From: "Stewart, Peter" <>
Subject: Saracena, Lusignan & Sanseverino (was: Muslim/Christian descents in Early-Medieval Spain)
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 11:12:56 +1000


> -----Original Message-----
> From: From: "Todd A. Farmerie" <>
> Sent: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 23:40:18
> To:
> Subject: Re: Muslim/Christian descents in Early-Medieval Spain
>
><snip>
> 3. Hugh VII of Lusignan married Saracina, a muslim
> This argument is similar to that of Fruela Gonzalez, only it does
> not have the same onomastic objections. Hugh was a crusader,
> but insufficient information survives about Saracina to allow any
> conclusion to be drawn.
>
> Is anyone aware of any others for this period (say, before 1200)?

In the recent discussion of the name of Hugues VII of Lusignan's wife
Saracena, someone suggested this might be a mistranscription for Sarafina.
This didn't strike me as at all likely, but I wasn't thinking then of
another contemporary instance of this name, which could conceivably belong
to the same woman: the mother of Robert II of Sanseverino, count of Caserta
& constable of Sicily (died 1182/3) was also Saracena. Her husband Robert I
of Sanseverino died before 1114, and I suppose it's possible that his widow
remarried Hugues VII of Lusignan afterwards. However, this is merely
speculation from the co-incidence of a highly unusual name & the fitting
chronology -- I don't know of any actual evidence, and of course there could
have been two different Saracenas living in France and Italy at the same
time.

Whether part-Muslim or not, this Sanseverino descent seems to have ended
with the lady's grandsons. By the way, I am puzzled by the parentage given
for her husband in various sources. Robert I of Sanseverino is usually taken
to have been the eldest son of Roger I, lord of Rota (or Sanseverino) by his
second wife Sica, widow of Geoffrey de Medania, lord of Acerra, daughter of
Landulf of Salerno, lord of Policastro & his unknown wife. However, Robert's
younger brother Enrico, lord of Sanseverino (died 31 August 1150) seems to
be the only one of the family who attested as (half-) brother of Robert de
Medania. This may be because his four elder Sanseverino brothers had all
died young, but then it may be that they were sons of their father's first
wife.

This woman is nameless in G Portanova's "I Sanseverino dalle origini al
1125" & "I Sanseverino dal 1125 al sterminio di 1246" in *Benedictina* 22
(1976) and in more recent studies. But Joanna H Drell in "Family Structure
in the Principality of Salerno during the Norman Period, 1077--1154" in
*Anglo-Norman Studies* 18 (Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1995)
suggests that Roger I of Sanseverino married Sikelgaita, daughter of Pandulf
of Salerno, lord of Capaccio & his wife Theodora. This lady is said to have
married Asclittinus of Sicignano, lord of Polla (died May 1086), but this is
in a later document which could be one of those which, according to Drell,
had misled Portanova.

I think Drell is mistaken in giving this Sikelgaita as mother of Enrico of
Sanseverino, but could she be the first wife of his father, married as the
widowed lady of Polla after May 1086, and mother of Robert I?

Peter Stewart

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