Norman conquest of southern Italy
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1194, involving many battles and independent conquerors. In 1130, the territories in southern Italy united as the Kingdom of Sicily, which included the island of Sicily, the southern third of the Italian Peninsula, the archipelago of Malta, and parts of North Africa.
Itinerant Norman forces arrived in southern Italy as mercenaries in the service of Lombard and Byzantine factions, communicating swiftly back home news about opportunities in the Mediterranean. These groups gathered in several places, establishing fiefdoms and states of their own, uniting and elevating their status to de facto independence within 50 years of their arrival.
Unlike the Norman Conquest of England, which took a few years after one decisive battle, the conquest of southern Italy was the product of decades and a number of battles, few decisive. Many territories were conquered independently, and only later were unified into a single state. Compared to the conquest of England, it was unplanned and disorganised, but equally complete.
Pre-Norman Viking activity in Italy
There is little evidence of Viking activity in Italy as a precursor to the arrival of the Normans in 999, but some raiding is recorded. Ermentarius of Noirmoutier, the Annales Bertiniani, and several additional Moorish sources provide accounts of Vikings based in Frankia, raiding in Iberia, then proceeding to raid in other parts of the Mediterranean around 860. In 860, according to an account by the Norman monk Dudo of Saint-Quentin, a Viking fleet co-commanded by Alstignus, believed to be Hastein, and Björn Ironside, landed in Italy seeking to sack the city of Rome. The Viking force arrived at the town of Luna, whose walls were too heavily defended for an outright assault. The force devised a plan to trick the town’s bishop into converting Hastein to Christianity. Once converted, Hastein faked his death with the final wish to be buried in the town's church. Entering with a small force with concealed weapons in the funeral procession, the force surprised the town guards and opened the city gates for the remaining Viking force. Upon learning that the town was not Rome, the Viking force raided the surrounding countryside before ultimately sailing back to Frankia.Many Norsemen fought as mercenaries in Southern Italy, including the Varangian Guard led by Harald Hardrada, who later became king of Norway, who conquered Sicily between 1038 and 1040, with the help of Norman mercenaries, under William de Hauteville, who won his nickname Iron Arm by defeating the emir of Syracuse in single combat, and a Lombard contingent, led by Arduin. The Varangians were first used as mercenaries in Italy against the Arabs in 936. Runestones were raised in Sweden in memory of warriors who died in Langbarðaland, the Old Norse name for southern Italy.
Later, several Anglo-Danish and Norwegian nobles participated in the Norman conquest of southern Italy, like Edgar the Ætheling, who left England in 1086, and Jarl Erling Skakke, who won his nickname after a battle against Arabs in Sicily. On the other hand, many Anglo-Danish rebels fleeing William the Conqueror joined the Byzantines in their struggle against Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, in Southern Italy.
Arrival of the Normans in Italy
The earliest reported date of the arrival of Norman knights in southern Italy is 999, although it may be assumed that they had visited before then. In that year, according to some traditional sources of uncertain origin, Norman pilgrims returning from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem via Apulia stayed with Prince Guaimar III in Salerno. The city and its environs were attacked by Saracens from Africa demanding payment of an overdue annual tribute. While Guaimar began to collect the tribute, the Normans ridiculed him and his Lombard subjects for cowardice, and they assaulted their besiegers. The Saracens fled. Booty was confiscated and a grateful Guaimar asked the Normans to stay. They refused, but promised to bring his rich gifts to their compatriots in Normandy and tell them about possibly lucrative military service in Salerno. Some sources have Guaimar sending emissaries to Normandy to bring back knights, and this account of the arrival of the Normans is sometimes known as the "Salerno tradition".The Salerno tradition was first recorded by Amatus of Montecassino in his Ystoire de li Normant between 1071 and 1086. Much of this information was borrowed from Amatus by Peter the Deacon for his continuation of the Chronicon Monasterii Casinensis of Leo of Ostia, written during the early 12th century. Beginning with the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius in the 17th century, the Salernitan story became the accepted history. Although its factual accuracy was questioned periodically during the following centuries, it has been accepted by most scholars since.
Another historical account of the arrival of the first Normans in Italy, the "Gargano tradition", appears in primary chronicles without reference to any previous Norman presence. According to this account Norman pilgrims at the shrine to Michael the Archangel at Monte Gargano in 1016 met the Lombard Melus of Bari, who persuaded them to join him in an attack on the Byzantine government of Apulia.
As with the Salerno tradition, there are two primary sources for the Gargano story: the Gesta Roberti Wiscardi of William of Apulia and the Chronica monasterii S. Bartholomaei de Carpineto of a monk named Alexander, written about a century later and based on William's work. Some scholars have combined the Salerno and Gargano tales, and John Julius Norwich suggested that the meeting between Melus and the Normans had been arranged by Guaimar. Melus had been in Salerno just before his visit to Monte Gargano.
Another story involves the exile of a group of brothers from the Drengot family. One of the brothers, Osmund or Gilbert, murdered William Repostel in the presence of Robert I, Duke of Normandy after Repostel allegedly boasted about dishonouring his murderer's daughter. Threatened with death, the Drengot brother fled with his siblings to Rome and one of the brothers had an audience with the pope before joining Melus of Bari. Amatus dates the story to after 1027, and does not mention the pope. According to him, Gilbert's brothers were Osmund, Ranulf, Asclettin and Ludolf.
Between 1016 and 1024, in a fragmented political context, the Lombard was usurped by a group of Norman knights headed by Gilbert and hired by Melus. The County, which replaced the pre-existing chamberlainship, is considered to be the first political body established by the Normans in the South of Italy.
Repostel's murder is dated by all the chronicles to the reign of Robert the Magnificent and after 1027, although some scholars believe "Robert" was a scribal error for "Richard". The earlier date is necessary if the emigration of the first Normans was connected to the Drengots and the murder of William Repostel. In the Histories of Ralph Glaber, "Rodulfus" leaves Normandy after displeasing Count Richard. The sources disagree about which brother was the leader on the southern trip. Orderic and William of Jumièges, in the latter's Gesta Normannorum Ducum, name Osmund; Glaber names Rudolph, and Leo, Amatus and Adhemar of Chabannes name Gilbert. According to most southern-Italian sources, the leader of the Norman contingent at the Battle of Cannae in 1018 was Gilbert. If Rudolf is identified with the Rudolf of Amatus' history as a Drengot brother, he may have been the leader at Cannae.
A modern hypothesis concerning the Norman arrival in the Mezzogiorno concerns the chronicles of Glaber, Adhemar and Leo. All three chronicles indicate that Normans under "Rodulfus", fleeing Richard II, came to Pope Benedict VIII of Rome. The pope sent them to Salerno to seek mercenary employment against the Byzantines because of the latter's invasion of papal Beneventan territory. There, they met the Beneventan primates : Landulf V of Benevento, Pandulf IV of Capua, Guaimar III of Salerno and Melus of Bari. According to Leo's chronicle, "Rudolf" was Ralph of Tosni. If the first confirmed Norman military actions in the south involved Melus' mercenaries against the Byzantines in May 1017, the Normans probably left Normandy between January and April.
Lombard revolt, 1009–1022
On 9 May 1009, an insurrection erupted in Bari against the Catapanate of Italy, the regional Byzantine authority based there. Led by Melus, a local Lombard, the revolt quickly spread to other cities. Late that year the katepano, John Curcuas, was killed in battle. In March 1010 his successor, Basil Mesardonites, disembarked with reinforcements and besieged the rebels in the city. The Byzantine citizens 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, reestablishing Byzantine authority. He did not follow his victory with severe sanctions, only sending Melus' family to Constantinople. Basil died in 1016, after years of peace in southern Italy.Leo Tornikios Kontoleon arrived as Basil's successor in May of that year. After Basil's death, Melus revolted again; this time, he used a newly arrived band of Normans, sent by Pope Benedict, who met him at Monte Gargano. Tornikios sent an army, led by Leo Passianos, against the Lombard-Norman coalition. Passianos and Melus met on the Fortore at Arenula; the battle was either indecisive or a victory for Melus. Tornikios then took command, leading his forces into a second encounter near Civita. This second battle was a victory for Melus, although Lupus Protospatharius and the anonymous chronicler of Bari recorded a defeat. A third battle took place at Vaccaricia, modern in Rieti; the region from the Fortore to Trani was in his hands, and in September Tornikios was replaced by Basil Boioannes. According to Amatus, there were five consecutive Lombard and Norman victories by October 1018.
At Boioannes' request, a detachment of the elite Varangian Guard was sent to Italy to fight the Normans. The armies met at the Ofanto near Cannae, the site of Hannibal's victory over the Romans in 216 BC, and the Battle of Cannae was a decisive Byzantine victory; Amatus wrote that only ten Normans survived from a contingent of 250. After the battle, Ranulf Drengot was elected leader of their company. Boioannes protected his gains by building a fortress at the Apennine pass, guarding the entrance to the Apulian plain. In 1019 Troia was garrisoned by Boioannes' Norman troops, an indication of Norman willingness to fight on either side. With Norman mercenaries on both sides, they would obtain good terms for the release of their brethren from their captors regardless of outcome.
Alarmed by the shift in momentum in the south, Pope Benedict went north in 1020 to Bamberg to confer with Holy Roman Emperor Henry II. Although the emperor took no immediate action, events the following year persuaded him to intervene. Boioannes marched on Dattus, who was garrisoning a tower in the territory of the Duchy of Gaeta with papal troops. Dattus was captured and, on 15 June 1021, received the traditional Roman poena cullei: he 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. Although Troia did not fall, the Lombard princes were allied with the Empire and Pandulf removed to a German prison; this ended the Lombard revolt.