Roger I of Sicily

Born around 1031 into the House of Hauteville, Roger joined his brother Robert Guiscard's campaigns against the Emirate of Sicily starting in 1061. A decade later Robert invested him with part of the island; Roger spent the next nineteen years grinding through the rest of it, taking the last Muslim holdouts by 1090. He added Malta the following year. The domain he built was folded into the Duchy of Apulia after his death in 1101, then elevated to the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. His male-line heirs held the throne until 1194.