1095-1154

Norman king of Sicily who established the first compulsory medical examinations for European doctors. Roger, whose reign began in 1130, waged a successful war against the Byzantine Empire, created a civil service, and made his capital at Palermo a center of culture. In 1140, the year when he established the examination system, he granted the medical school at Salerno his official protection. Years later, in 1224, his grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250), put in place an even more rigorous examination process for physicians in Sicily.