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#1 The count of Sicily, Roger, lifted his leg and farted. By the truth of my religion, he exclaimed, there is more use in that than in what you have to say. His advisors stood chastened. The plan they had recommended was not a good one, as courtiers' plans often are.

#2 Roger, count of Sicily, was born around the year 1040. He was the eleventh-century Europe's ultimate self-made man. He had left his homelands in what is now north-west France and set out for territory that had called many of his kinsmen and countrymen: the rich but unstable southern Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia.

#3 The Norman invasion of southern Italy was not well received by everyone, and some even viewed them as a filthy and tyrannical bunch. But over time, the papacy began to view the Normans as useful allies who could be used to advance the church's agenda.

#4 The conquest of Sicily was a holy mission that required a substantial earthly justification. The island contained some of the finest farmland in the Mediterranean, and its Muslim emirs had improved the agricultural methods there.