Geoffrey, Count of Ragusa

Geoffrey or Godfrey was the second eldest son of Roger I of Sicily. He was probably a bastard, like his elder brother Jordan, but he may have been a legitimate son by either Judith of Évreux or Eremburga of Mortain. Either way, he stood no chance of inheriting, for he had leprosy (morbus elephantinus),[1] or some similar disease. He never married, but was engaged to a daughter of Boniface del Vasto.

His father loved him no less and bestowed on him the county of Ragusa. He retired to a monastery to live out his days and died sometime between 1096 and 1120.

Notes
  1. ...Iordanus enim, filius comitis, propter strenuitatem suam omnibus amabilis, quem plures—quia iam Gaufredum, quod dolorem non minuit, morbus elephantinus pervaserat—comitis haeredem futurum suspicabantur—nam neque alium masculum habebat, apud Syracusam, sui iuris urbem, febre synocho percussus est. Quod cum patri nuntiatum fuisset, illorsum praevenire mortem accelerat, sed, morbo ingravescente, ultima determinatio vitae Iordani patre velocior fuit (Gaufredi Malaterrae De Rebus Gestis Rogerii Calabriae Et Siciliae Comitis Et Roberti Guiscardi Ducis Fratris Eius)

Sources
  • Houben, Hubert (translated by Graham A. Loud and Diane Milburn). Roger II of Sicily: Ruler between East and West. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  • Curtis, Edmund. Roger of Sicily and the Normans in Lower Italy 1016-1154. G.P. Putnam's Sons: London, 1912.
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