Assizes of Ariano

The Assizes of Ariano were a set of royal enactments promulgated by Roger II for the Kingdom of Sicily at Ariano in the summer of 1140, regarded as a major statement of royal legislation in the Norman kingdom, addressing public security, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, property, fiscal rights and military obligations. Earlier scholarship treated the assizes as evidence of a fully centralized monarchy and a coherent feudal order under strict royal supervision; more recent work stresses instead the composite character of the kingdom and the contingent, negotiated nature of aristocratic power, military service and territorial administration in the mainland provinces.