The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Northern Conquest (The Medieval World)

Founded upon an unrivalled knowledge of the original sources for the conquest, this is a cogent and lucid analysis of a key medieval subject hitherto largely ignored by historians. B> This is a wide ranging and engaging account of the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily by the Norman's during the eleventh century and of Robert 'Guiscard', The Cunning, who was a central figure in the conquest. While examining the process by which the conquest took place, Guiscard's role within it, and his turbulent role in the south, Graham Louds places the Norman takeover in context. The Age of Robert Guiscard examines both the historical evolution of southern Italy before the Normans, which made the conquest possible, and the hybrid society which that conquest created. The relations of the Normans with their nominal overlord the papace and Guiscard's attempt to conquer the Byzantine Empire, are also discussed in depth. For those interested in Italian or Medieval history. Hardcover 0-582-04529-0 $ 79.95y The Norman expansion across Europe in the 11th century was a movement of enormous historical importance. This text places the careers of Robert Guiscard and the Hauteville family against the wider context of this expansion