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. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Editor's Preface 8 Acknowledgements 10 Abbreviations 12 Introduction 14 Chapter I: Southern Italy before the Normans 25 The evolution of southern Italy 27 Government 42 Society 61 Chapter II: The coming of the Normans 73 First contacts 73 Infiltration and early settlement 80 Normandy and Italy 94 Chapter III: The conquest of the mainland 105 Apulia and Aversa in the 1040s 105 The Battle of Civitate and its aftermath 123 A conquest completed? 143 Chapter IV: The conquest of Sicily 159 The early campaigns 159 The capture of Palermo 170 Consolidation and settlement 178 Chapter V: The Normans, the papacy and the two empires 199 The investiture of 1059 199 The papacy and southern Italy 1060–80 207 Robert Guiscard’s attack on Byzantium 222 The papacy and southern Italy after 1085 236 Chapter VI: Government and society in Norman Italy 247 Robert Guiscard and the aristocracy 247 The aristocracy and ducal government after 1085 259 The Church 273 Native and Norman 291 Conclusion 304 Genealogical tables 310 I The Hauteville kin 312 II The descendants of Robert Guiscard 313 III The Lombard princes of Capua and Benevento 314 IV The family of the Lombard princes of Salerno 315 V The Norman counts of Aversa and princes of Capua 316 VI The descendants of Amicus 317 VII The counts of the Principate 317 VIII The Guarna family of Salerno 318 Maps 320 I Southern Italy 322 II The Capitanata, Molise, Campania and the Basilicata 323 III Apulia 324 IV Sicily 325 V Robert Guiscard’s campaigns against Byzantium, 1081–5 326 A brief guide to further reading 327 Index 334 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