Normans and the Mediterranean

Sicily, 1093
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Spanned most of the eleventh century, involving many battles and many independent players conquering territories of their own.
Only later were these united as the Kingdom of Sicily, which included not only the island of Sicily, but also the entire southern third of the Italian peninsula (save Benevento, which they did briefly hold on two occasions) as well as the archipelago of Malta and parts of North Africa.
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Immigrant Norman brigands acclimatised themselves to the mezzogiorno as mercenaries in the service of various Lombard and Byzantine factions, communicating news swiftly back home about the opportunities that lay in the Mediterranean.
These aggressive groups aggregated in various places, eventually establishing fiefdoms and states of their own; they succeeded in unifying themselves and raising their status to one of de facto independence within fifty years of their arrival.
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Unlike the Norman conquest of England (1066), which took place over the course of a few years after one decisive battle, the conquest of the south was the product of decades and many battles, few decisive.
Many independent players were involved and conquered territories of their own, which were only later unified into one state. Compared to the conquest of England, it was unplanned and unorganised, but just as permanent.
This is similar to what happened in Ireland.

AD 999
The earliest purported date for the arrival of Norman knights in southern Italy is 999.
In that year, according to several sources, Norman pilgrims (of which there were presumably many before and after that date) returning from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by way of Apulia stopped at Salerno, where they were enjoying the hospitality of Prince Guaimar III when the city and its environs were attacked by Saracens from Africa demanding the late payment of an annual tribute.
AD 999
While Guaimar began to collect the tribute, the Normans upbraided the Lombards for their lack of bravery and immediately assaulted their besiegers.
The Saracens fled, much booty was taken, and a thankful Guaimar pleaded with the Normans to stay. They refused, but promised to bring his rich gifts to their compatriots in Normandy and to tell them of the offer of reward in return for military service in Salerno.
Some sources even have Guaimar sending emissaries to Normandy to bring back knights.
Rebellion
On 9 May 1009, an insurrection erupted in Bari against the Catapanate of Italy, the regional Byzantine authority which was based at Bari.
Led by one Melus, a local Lombard of high standing, it quickly spread to other cities. Late that year or early the next (1010), the catapan, John Curcuas, was killed in battle. In March 1010, his successor, Basil Mesardonites, disembarked with reinforcements and immediately besieged the rebels in the city.
Rebellion
The Greek citizens of the city negotiated with Basil and forced the Lombard leaders, Melus and his brother-in-law Dattus, to flee. Basil entered the city on 11 June 1011 and reestablished Byzantine authority. He did not follow his victory up with any severe reactions. He simply sent the family of Melus, including his son Argyrus, to Constantinople. Basil died in 1016 after years of peace in southern Italy.
Leo
Leo Tornikios Kontoleon arrived as Basil's successor in May that year. On Basil's death, Melus had revolted again, but this time he employed a newly-arrived a band of Normans, which had either been sent to him by Pope Benedict or which he had met, with or withour Guaimar's assistance, at Monte Gargano.
Leo sent Leo Passianos with an army against the Lombard-Norman assemblage. Passianos and Melus met on the Fortore at Arenula. The battle was either indecisive (William of Apulia) or a victory for Melus (Leo of Ostia).
Leo
Tornikios then took command himself and led them into a second encounter near Civita. This second battle was a victory for Melus, though Lupus Protospatharius and the anonymous chronicler of Bari record a defeat.
A third battle, a decisive victory for Melus, occurred at Vaccaricia.
The entire region from the Fortore to Trani had fallen to Melus and in September, Tornikios was relieved of his duties in favour of Basil Boiannes, who arrived in December.
Leo
At Boiannes' request, a detachment of the elite Varangian Guard was sent to Italy to combat the Normans. The two forces met on the river Ofanto near Cannae.
The result was a decisive Greek victory. Boioannes protected his gains by immediately building a great fortress at the Apennine pass guarding the entrance to the Apulian plain. In 1019, Troia, as it was called, was garrisoned by Boioannes' own contingent of Norman troops, a sign of the true mercenary tendencies of the Normans.
Pope Benedict
Frightened by the shift in momentum in the south, Pope Benedict, who, as noted above, may have given the initially impetus to Norman involvement in the war, went north in 1020 to Bamberg to confer with the Holy Roman Emperor, then Henry II. The Emperor took no immediate action, but events of the next year convinced him to intervene. Boioannes had allied with Pandulf of Capua and marched on Dattus, who was then garrisoning a tower in territory of the Duchy of Gaeta with papal troops. He was captured, and, on 15 June 1021, was tied up in a sack with a monkey, a rooster, and a snake and thrown into the sea. In 1022, a large imperial army marched south in three detachments under Henry II, Pilgrim of Cologne, and Poppo of Aquileia, to attack Troia. While Troia did not fall, all the Lombard princes were brought over to the Empire and Pandulf was carted off to a German prison. The period of the Lombard revolt was closed.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
In 1024, Norman mercenaries (perhaps under Ranulf Drengot) were in the pay of Guaimar III when he and Pandulf IV besieged Pandulf V in Capua. In 1026, after an 18-month siege, Capua surrendered and Pandulf IV was reinstated. In the following years, Ranulf would attach himself to Pandulf, but in 1029, he abandoned the prince and joined Sergius IV of Naples, whom Pandulf had expelled from Naples in 1027, probably with Ranulf's assistance.
In 1029, Ranulf and Sergius recaptured Naples. Early in 1030, Sergius gave Ranulf the County of Aversa as a fief, the first Norman principality in the region. Sergius also gave his sister in marriage to the new count. In 1034, however, Sergius' sister died and Ranulf returned to Pandulf. According to Amatus:
For the Normans never desired any of the Lombards to win a decisive victory, in case this should be to their disadvantage. But now supporting the one and then aiding the other, they prevented anyone being completely ruined
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
Norman reinforcements and local miscreants, who found a welcome in Ranulf's encampment with no questions asked, swelled the numbers at Ranulf's command. There, Norman language and Norman customs welded a disparate group into the semblance of a nation, as Amatus also observed.
In 1037, the Normans were further entrenched when the Emperor Conrad II deposed Pandulf and recognised Ranulf as "Count of Aversa" holding directly from the emperor. In 1038, Ranulf invaded Capua and expanded his polity into one of the largest in southern Italy.
Between 1038 and 1040, another band of Normans were sent along with a Lombard contingent by Guaimar IV of Salerno to fight in Sicily for the Byzantines against the Saracens. The first members of the Hauteville family won renown in Sicily fighting under George Maniaches. William of Hauteville won his nickname "Iron Arm" at the siege of Syracuse.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
After the assassination of the Catapan Nicephorus Doukeianos at Ascoli in 1040, the Normans planned to elect a leader from amongst their own, but were instead bribed by Atenulf, Prince of Benevento, to elect him their leader. On 16 March 1041, near Venosa, on the Olivento, the Norman army tried to negotiate with the new catapan, Michael Doukeianos, but failed and battle was joined at Montemaggiore, near Cannae. Though the catapan had called up a large Varangian force from Bari, the battle was a rout and many of Michael's soldiers drowned in the Ofanto on retreat.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
On 3 September 1041, the Normans, nominally under the Lombard leadership of Arduin and Atenulf, defeated the new Byzantine catepan, Exaugustus Boioannes, and took him captive to Benevento, significant of the remaining Lombard influence over the conquests. Also about that time, Guaimar IV of Salerno began to draw the Normans under his banner with various promises. In February 1042, probably feeling abandoned, and perhaps bribed by the Greeks, Atenulf negotiated the ransom of Exaugustus and then fled with the ransom money to Greek territory. He was replaced by Argyrus, who won some early victories but then too was bribed to defect to the Greeks.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
In September 1042, the Normans finally elected a leader from among their own. The revolt, originally Lombard, had become Norman in character and leadership. William Iron Arm was elected with the title of "count." He and the other leaders petitioned Guaimar for recognition of their conquests. They received the lands around Melfi as a fief and proclaimed Guaimar "Duke of Apulia and Calabria." At Melfi in 1043, Guaimar divided the region (except for Melfi itself, which was to be ruled on a republican model) into twelve baronies for the benefit of the Norman leaders: William himself received Ascoli, Asclettin received Acerenza, Tristan received Montepeloso, Hugh Tubœuf received Monopoli, Peter received Trani, Drogo of Hauteville received Venosa, and Ranulf Drengot, now independent, received Monte Gargano. William in turn was married to Guida, daughter of Guy, Duke of Sorrento, and niece of Guaimar. The alliance between the Normans and Guaimar was strong.
Mercenary service, 1022–1046
During his reign, William and Guaimar began the conquest of Calabria in 1044 and built the great castle of Stridula, probably near Squillace. William was less successful in Apulia, where, in 1045, he was defeated near Taranto by Argyrus, though his brother, Drogo, conquered Bovino. With William's death, however, the period of Norman mercenary service would come completely to and end and witness the rise of two great Norman principalities, both owing nominal allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire: the County of Aversa, later the Principality of Capua, and the County of Apulia, later the Duchy of Apulia.

County of Melfi, 1046–1059
In 1046, Drogo entered Apulia and defeated the catepan, Eustathios Palatinos, near Taranto. His brother Humphrey meanwhile forced Bari to conclude a treaty with the Normans.
In 1047, Guaimar, who had auspiciously supported his succession and thus the establishment of a Norman dynasty in the south, gave Drogo his daughter Gaitelgrima in marriage. Then the Emperor Henry III came down and confirmed the county of Aversa in its fidelity to him and made Drogo his direct vassal too, granting him the title dux et magister Italiae comesque Normannorum totius Apuliae et Calabriae, the first legitimate title for the Normans of Melfi. Henry, whose wife Agnes had been mistreated by the Beneventans, then authorised Drogo to conquer Benevento and hold it from the imperial crown. The Normans did not capture it until 1053, however.
County of Melfi, 1046–1059
In 1048, Drogo commanded an expedition into Calabria via the valley of Crati, near Cosenza. He distributed the conquered territories in Calabria and granted his brother Robert Guiscard a castle at Scribla to guard the entrances.
In 1051, Drogo was assassinated in a Byzantine conspiracy. He was succeeded by Humphrey after a brief interregnum.
The rebelliousness of the Norman knights under Drogo had angered Pope Leo IX and its papal opposition with which Humphrey first had to deal.
County of Aversa, 1049–1098
In the 1050s and 1060s, there were two centres of Norman power in southern Italy: one at Melfi under the Hautevilles and another at Aversa under the Drengots.
Richard Drengot succeeded, probably through violence, to the County of Aversa in 1049 and immediately began a policy of territorial aggrandisement in competition with his Hauteville rivals.
Conquest of the Abruzzo, 1053–1105
In 1077, the last Lombard prince of Benevento died. The Pope appointed Robert Guiscard to succeed him in 1078.
In 1081, however, the Guiscard relinquished the principality, which by then comprised little more than Benevento itself and its neighbourhood, having been reduced by the Normans through conquest in the previous decades, especially after Civitate, and even after 1078. At Ceprano in June 1080, the Pope reinvested Robert in Benevento in an attempt to put a halt to Norman infractions on its territory and also on that which was technically tied to Benevento in the Abruzzi, which Robert' relatives were conquering for their own.
In the immediate aftermath of Civitate, the Normans began the conquest of the Adriatic littoral of the Benevenatan principality.
Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091
Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091
Sicily, mostly inhabited by Greek Christians, was under Arab control at the time of its conquest by the Normans. It had originally been under rule of the Aghlabids and then the Fatimids, but in 948 the Kalbids wrested control of the island from the Fatimids and held it until 1053. In the 1010s and 1020s a series of succession crises opened up the way for the interference of the Zirids of Ifriqiya.
Sicily fell into turmoil as petty fiefdoms battled each other for supremacy. Into this mess the Normans, under Robert Guiscard and his younger brother Roger Bosso, came with the intent to conquer, for back when the pope had invested Robert with the ducal title, he had also conferred on him the empty title of "Duke of Sicily", thus urging him to undertake a campaign to wrest Sicily from the Saracens.
Norman Castles in Sicily
This is a 9th century Arab palace in Palermo that was converted into a typical keep castle by the Normans.
Erice
Erice
1090s: Taking the Cross… The Crusades
First Crusade
1071 Byzantine army is destroyed by Turks
1071 – 1085 Mercenary Seljuk Turks conquer Syria and Palestine. The City of Jerusalem is taken from the more civilised Saracen caliphs
1085 – 1095 3000 Christian Pilgrims were massacred in Jerusalem and the Christian churches were destroyed or used as stables
1095 Emperor Alexius I sent an embassy to Pope Urban II regarding the atrocities in Jerusalem and the growing threat of the Turks to Constantinople and the whole of Europe
First Crusade
1095 Pope Urban II called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in Italy, to consider the appeal - decisions were deferred until later in the year
1095 November 27 Pope Urban II called a great council of clergy and nobles to meet at Clermont in France called the Council of Clermont. He called for a crusade against the Infidels
1095 - Spring 1096 Peter the Hermit took up the cry "God wills it!" and ordinary people join in the 'People's Crusade' - most were unarmed
First Crusade
Summer 1096 Armed forces gathered at Constantinople to embark on the First CrusadeAugust
1096 Emperor Alexius I shipped the Peoples Crusade over the Bosphorus
October 1096 The Peoples Crusade were annihilated by the Turks in Anatolia
May – June 1097 Siege of NicaceaJuly 1097Battle of Dorylaeum
Oct 1097 - June 1098 The Siege of Antioch
1098 June 1Stephen of Blois and numerous French crusaders flee the siege of Antioch with news of the arrival of Emir Kerboga of Mosul
1098 June 3 Bohemond I, elder son of Robert Guiscard, led the capture of Antioch

The First Crusade
1098 June 5 Emir Kerboga of Mosul and his army of 75,000 lays siege to the crusaders led by Bohemond
1099 Feb 14 – June The siege of Arqah, near Tripoli
1098 June 28 The Battle of Orontes. The First Crusade wins a victory forcing Emir Kerboga to lift the siege of Antioch
1099 June 13 Raymond of Toulouse leads the crusaders from Antioch and to Jerusalem
1099 July 15 The soldiers of the First Crusade successfully scale the walls of Jerusalem and take the Holy city

Supposed True Cross Reliquary

Urban II
Urban II's crusading movement took its first public shape at the Council of Piacenza, where, in March 1095, Urban II received an ambassador from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081–118) asking for help against the Muslims. A great council met, attended by numerous Italian, Burgundian, and French bishops in such vast numbers it had to be held in the open air outside the city. At the Council of Clermont held in November of the same year, Urban II's sermon proved incredibly effective, as he summoned the attending nobility and the people to wrestle the Holy Land from the hands of the Seljuk Turks:
Cruce signati
"Christians, hasten to help your brothers in the East, for they are being attacked. Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captain Christ. Wear his cross as your badge. If you are killed your sins will be pardoned."
“God Wills It!”
Pope Urban II calls for Crusade to take back the Holy Land in 1095.
Cites atrocities committed by Muslims in Jerusalem
Motivated by Byzantine Emperor’s appeal to Pope for help against the Turks
Enthusiastically received by nobles



Reasons for “Taking the Cross”
The First Crusade: A Success
The Knights Templar
Saladin, King of the Egyptians and Syrians
The Third Crusade “All-Stars”

Motte and Bailey Castles (quick re-cap)
Introduction
Motte and Bailey castles were wooden castles that were introduced by the Normans in 1050.

One of their major benefits is that they were very quick to build (some took less than 10 days to build).


Motte: Etymology
“Motte” is an old French word for “clod of earth”.
This the hill where the wooden castle is built. There are steps and bridges leading from the bailey.
Bailey
Motte and Bailey castles were wooden castles that were introduced by the Normans in 1050. “Motte” is an old French word for “clod of earth” and “bailey” meant enclosure. They were very quick to build (some took less than 10 days to build).
How they were built.
To build a motte and bailey castle, you need to dig a ditch around a hill and some flat land (the bailey). Then, you had to fill water into the ditch. Finally, on top of the hill, you build a wooden castle and a fence around the area.
Why were motte & bailey castles built?
William ordered them to be built after he got the crown to stop people fighting with each other after the Battle of Hastings and the death of King Harold.
Advantages and disadvantages of motte and bailey castles
Advantages:
Quick to build – 4 to 7 days
Cheap to build
Only need a few soldiers to defend a castles
Disadvantages:
Easy to burn down because they were made of wood
The wood rotted quickly so they had to make them again every 10 years
Stone Castles
After a while it made more sense to build some stone castles because the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.
Porchester Roman Fort
Portchester Castle is an interesting site, comprising a Roman Fort, later adapted into a Norman Castle, which in turn became a medieval Royal palace.