“Whereas the Conquest of England was undertaken by the Duke of Normandy, his army and allied armies as a concerted operation, Norman activities in southern Europe were intermittent and piecemeal, often led by individual knights as part of ad hoc mercenary groups.”

By Trevor Rowley

1066 IS ONE of the best-known dates in the English-speaking world. The Battle of Hastings saw the death of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold II, and his replacement by the Norman, William the Conqueror. It marked the beginning of the present line of the British monarchy. In fact, Queen Elizabeth II still holds the title of Duke of Normandy.

The takeover of England that followed was characteristic of the Normans: ruthless, ambitious and, for the most part, efficient. The Conquest heralded a complete change in the make-up of the ruling aristocracy and clergy and saw the transfer of 95 per cent of the land of England into foreign hands.

In addition, the Norman Conquest had a lasting impact on law, literature and language, as well as seeing the introduction of a new neoclassical architecture, which is called Romanesque in the rest of Europe, but which in Britain is known simply as Norman. Thus, the Normans were responsible for fundamental, long-lasting changes in all aspects of life in England, then in Wales and Scotland and eventually in Ireland as well. 

It is less well known that the Normans successfully operated in other parts of Europe, notably the Mediterranean region.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, Normans were active in Spain, Italy, Greece, Anatolia, North Africa and even the Levant. The difference was that, whereas the Conquest of England was undertaken by the Duke of Normandy, his army and allied armies as a concerted operation, Norman activities in southern Europe were intermittent and piecemeal, often led by individual knights as part of ad hoc mercenary groups. 

Normandy was a relatively small territory, about the size of Wales, and under the feudal system only the eldest son inherited land. Consequently, with a growing population many younger sons sought their fortune elsewhere and the many conflicts in southern Europe enticed them with the promise of loot and of land. There were also many knights who had fallen foul of the Norman duke, who went into exile taking their military skills with them. 

Norman adventurers first tried their hand as mercenary soldiers in Spain, joining the Christian armies fighting Moors as part of the Reconquista, but there were few opportunities to gain land there, so they turned their attention to the more promising arena of southern Italy.

Here there were numerous city states in the hands of different nationalities; there was still a strong Greek presence here representing the residue of the Byzantine Empire, there were also several Arabic Moslem enclaves in the far south as well as Lombards from northern Italy and Latins in Papal principalities.

Conflict between the various interests was endemic, and Normans first appeared here as armed pilgrims on horseback on their way to Jerusalem. They made a deep impression on the local population. The chronicler Amatus of Montecassino wrote of Normans riding gaily “through the meadows and gardens-happy and joyful on their horses cavorting hither and thither…. the citizens of the town of Venosa saw these unfamiliar knights and wondered at them and were afraid.” And one may add, not without reason!

It was a time of shifting loyalties and easy alliances and Norman mercenaries were soon fighting alongside and then leading the various factions the Normans were past-masters at pragmatic diplomacy, advantageous inter-marriage and cavalry warfare and it was not long before they began acquiring first land and then titles.

One family in particular, the Hautevilles from the Cotentin peninsula in the west of Normandy, played a major role in the Norman takeover of southern Italy. By 1060 Normans had taken control of most of the southern Italian peninsula, led by one of the Hauteville brothers, Robert Guiscard (nicknamed ‘the crafty’) whose early career was one of unabashed brigandage. “He shrank from no violence and nothing was sacred to him,” wrote the Byzantine princess Anna Comnena in her 12th century chronicle Alexiad. “He respected neither old age, nor women and children and on occasion he spared neither church nor monastery.”

As Duke of Apulia and Calabria, Robert was the most powerful ruler in the region and even became involved in expeditions against the Byzantines in the Adriatic, capturing Greek islands such as Corfu. Robert and his younger brother, Roger, then turned their attention to the island of Sicily, still under Moslem control. It was Roger who played the major role in the capture of Sicily in a protracted war that lasted over 30 years. In fact, he became Count of Sicily in 1072, although it was not until 1091, that the whole island came under his control. By the time of his death in 1101, Roger was effectively in charge of Sicily and the whole of southern Italy — one of the most powerful rulers in the Christian world. Roger’s son, Roger II, was crowned king of Sicily in 1130 and the Hauteville dynasty ruled the kingdom until the end of the 12th century.

Norman Sicily was renowned as a successful cosmopolitan kingdom, where Normans, Greeks, Jews and Moslems lived peaceably alongside each other and were all involved in the process of government. The results of this diversity can be seen in the magnificent Siculo-Norman cathedrals that survive in Palermo, Monreale and Cefalu, as well as the Palatinate chapel in Palermo. These 12th century buildings successfully incorporate a mixture of Byzantine, Moslem and Northern European architectural styles. The cathedral at Monreale has the finest late-Byzantine mosaics to be found anywhere in the world.

The Normans used Sicily as a base to expand their area of control in the Mediterranean, capturing the island of Malta (1091) and establishing a short-lived Norman trading province along the North African coast, in what is now Tunisia, Algeria and Libya. The so-called Kingdom of Africa only lasted a few decades in the middle of the 12th century, but it demonstrated the overwhelming ambitions of the Normans, who used it as a base to access sub-Saharan gold. They even had designs upon Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, these were eventually thwarted, but the County Palatinate of Cephalonia and Zakynthos was taken by the Norman admiral Margaritus of Brindisi in 1185 and remained in the hands of his successors until 1479. 

The Norman kingdom of Sicily fell through a dynastic war, to the German Hohenstaufens in 1194, but through the female line Hauteville blood passed to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1220-1250). However, the Kingdom of Sicily, which the Normans created survived until the 19th century

The final arena in which the Normans made their mark was in the Levant, by participating in the First Crusade (1095-1099). Two Norman contingents joined the crusade, one from Southern Italy under the leadership of Robert Guiscard’s son, Bohemond of Taranto, and the other from Normandy itself under William the Conqueror’s eldest son, Robert II, Duke of Normandy. The army from Normandy acquitted itself well in the Holy Land, in particular Robert played a central role in the siege and capture of Jerusalem (1099)

It is possible that Robert was offered the crown of the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, but he preferred to return home in the hope of claiming another kingdom – England. King William II (Rufus) had died in a hunting accident while Robert was on crusade and the English crown was seized by his youngest brother, Henry I. Robert failed in his attempt to become king of England and was eventually arrested by his brother and although he spent the rest of his life in England, it was inside a prison.

Bohemond, on the other hand, did stay in the Levant and founded one of the Crusader States, the Principality of Antioch (now the Turkish city of Antakya). Although the Italian Normans were rapidly assimilated by the indigenous Greek and Armenia population, Antioch was ruled by Bohemond’s successors until it fell to Baibars, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in 1268. The last Prince of Antioch, Bohemond VI, was also the last Norman territorial ruler anywhere.

The Normans did not establish a lasting empire, their driving force was family rather than nationality. The last truly Norman king of England, Stephen, died in 1154, the last Norman king of Sicily, William III, was deposed in 1194, while Normandy itself was taken over by the French king in 1204. Nevertheless, the Normans stride across the pages of 11th and 12th century European history as larger than life characters, like those depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. Whether in the British Isles, southern Italy and Sicily, Spain, or on the Crusades, the Normans made an enormous impact, but they were more than brutally effective soldiers, they reshaped the political geography and culture in Britain, Italy and the Holy Land.

Trevor Rowley is the author of The Normans: A History of Conquest. With a career in education and a lifelong love of landscape history and archaeology, his other publications include Villages in the Landscape, The High Middle Ages, and Norman England, published by British academic presses. The Normans is his first book to be published in America. See his other works on Amazon.