roclaimed King of Sicily by the anti-pope Anaclete, and united Sicily
and Naples under his sway. He was followed by his son William (the
Bad), and his grandson William (the Good), on whose death, without
issue, Henry VI., who married Roger's daughter Constance, claimed the
succession in the right of his wife. (_L'Art de Verifier les Dates._)

The most important of these relations may be set forth thus:

TANCRED OF HAUTEVILLE
|
+-------------------+
| |
Robert Guiscard Roger I.
Count of Apulia Count of Sicily
| |
Roger Roger II.
| King of Sicily
William |
+-----------------+
| |
William Constance = Henry VI.
the Bad
|
William
the Good

Let the reader construct the family tree from the data in Villani, and
compare it with the one given above. He will find that Villani, to
begin with, makes Robert Guiscard a younger son of the Duke of
Normandy, then makes his younger brother, Roger I., into his son
(occasionally confounding him with Roger II.); and, finally, ignores
William the Bad, and makes William the Good the brother of Constance.
His details as to the pretender Tancred are equally inaccurate. These
must suffice as specimens; but they are specimens not only of a
special class of mistake, but of a style of work against which the
reader must be constantly on his guard if he intends to make use of
any detailed dates or relations, or even if he wishes to make sure
that the Pope or other actor named in any connection is really the
right one.

So, too, even well within historical times, Villani is prone to the
epic simplification of events. His account of the negociations of
Farinata with Manfred, and of the battle of Montaperti for instance,
represents the Florentine legend or tradition rather than the history
of the events. These events are conceived with the vividness,
simplicity and picturesque preponderance of personality which make
them easy to see, but impossible to reconstruct in a rationally
convincing form.

To enter into further detail under this head would be to transgress
the limits we have set ourselves.

Sec. 5. _The Rationale of the Revolutions of Florence._[2]

[Footnote 2: The substance of this Sec. is entirely dra