THE NORMANS
From Raiders to Kings
LARS BROWNWORTH
The Normans: From Raiders to Kings
First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by Crux Publishing Ltd.
ISBN: 978-1-909979-03-1
Copyright © Lars Brownworth, 2014
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About the Author
Lars Brownworth is an author, speaker, broadcaster, and teacher based in Maryland, USA. He has written for the Wall Street Journal and been profiled in the New York Times, who likened him to some of history’s great popularizers. His books include Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization, and the forthcoming The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings.
For more information about Lars, please visit www.larsbrownworth.com
About the Book
There is much more to the Norman story than the Battle of Hastings. These descendants of the Vikings who settled in France, England, and Italy - but were not strictly French, English, or Italian - played a large role in creating the modern world. They were the success story of the Middle Ages; a footloose band of individual adventurers who transformed the face of medieval Europe. During the course of two centuries they launched a series of extraordinary conquests, carving out kingdoms from the North Sea to the North African coast.
In The Normans, author Lars Brownworth follows their story, from the first shock of a Viking raid on an Irish monastery to the exile of the last Norman Prince of Antioch. In the process he brings to vivid life the Norman tapestry’s rich cast of characters: figures like Rollo the Walker, William Iron-Arm, Tancred the Monkey King, and Robert Guiscard. It presents a fascinating glimpse of a time when a group of restless adventurers had the world at their fingertips.
For Nils, whose curiosity provided the spark
A Who’s Who of the Norman World
Adelaide (c. 1075 - 1118) Third wife of Roger I and mother of Roger II. Regent for her son from 1101 - 1112
Alexius Comnenus (c. 1056 - 1118) Byzantine emperor at the time of the First Crusade. Defeated attempts by Robert Guiscard and Bohemond I to invade the empire
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153) Cistercian Abbot and dominant figure of the early 12th century.
Bohemond I (c. 1058 - 1111) Eldest son of Robert Guiscard; founded the Principality of Antioch
Charles the Fat (839 - 888) Frankish king who attempted to stop Viking raids by allowing them to settle in Normandy
Christodulus (d. 1131) First admiral of Norman Sicily under Roger II
Constance (1154 - 1198) Sister of Roger II; inherited Sicily when William the Good died
Count Roger (c. 1031 - 1101) Youngest of the Hauteville brothers; conquered Sicily and consolidated Norman rule of the island. Also known as the ‘Great Count’
Drogo de Hauteville (c. 1010 - 1051) Younger brother of William Iron-Arm who succeeded him as Duke of Apulia and Calabria
Edward the Confessor (c. 1003 - 1066) Anglo-Saxon king of England who died without a clear successor
Emma (c. 985 - 1012) Sister of Duke Richard II; wife of Ethelred the Unready and mother of Edward the Confessor
Ethelred the Unready (c. 968 - 1016) Anglo-Saxon king who tried to stop Viking raids by bribing them. Father of Edward the Confessor
Frederick I Barbarossa (1122 - 1190) Holy Roman Emperor; invaded Italy in an attempt to conqueror Sicily
Frederick II Barbarossa (1194 - 1250) Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily and Jerusalem; Son of Henry VI and grandson of Roger II. Nicknamed ‘the wonder of the world’.
George Maniaces (d. 1043) Byzantine general who employed Norman mercenaries in an attempt to conquer Sicily
George of Antioch (d. 1151/2) Succeeded Christodulus as admiral; helped establish a Norman presence in North Africa
Godwin (Earl of Wessex, c. 1001 - 1053) Powerful advisor to Edward the Confessor and father of Tostig and Harold
Gregory VII (c. 1015 - 1085) Reforming pope who offered Robert Guiscard legitimacy in exchange for protection against Henry IV
Harald Hardrada (c. 1015 - 1066) Viking King of Norway; invaded England in 1066 and died at the Battle of Stamford Bridge
Harold Godwinson (c. 1022 - 1066) Last Anglo-Saxon king of England. Killed by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings
Henry IV (1050 - 1106) Holy Roman Emperor who tried to invade Rome while Robert Guiscard was occupied by Byzantium
Henry VI (1165 - 1197) Holy Roman Emperor and husband of Constance; conquered the Norman Kingdom of Sicily
Maio of Bari (d. 1160) Favorite of William the Bad; most powerful figure in Sicily until his assassination
Manuel Comnenus (1118 - 1180) Last strong Byzantine emperor of the 12th century; campaigned against Roger II
Margaritus (1149 - 1197) Admiral of Sicily under William the Good; nicknamed ‘the new Neptune’
Pope Leo IX (1002 - 1054) Led a great anti-Norman coalition to expel the Normans from southern Italy; captured by Robert Guiscard at the Battle of Civitate
Pope Urban II (c. 1042 - 1099) Launched the First Crusade to recover Jerusalem for Christendom
Raymond of Toulouse (c. 1041 - 1105) Main rival to Bohemond I for leadership of the First Crusade
Richard the Fearless (933 - 996) Son of William Longsword; first Duke of Normandy
Richard the Lionheart (1157 - 1199) Norman king of England who visited Sicily en route to the Third Crusade
Richard II (c. 962 - 1026) Second Duke of Normandy; also known as ‘Richard the Good’
Robert Guiscard (c. 1015 - 1085) Half-brother of Drogo; conquered much of southern Italy and was elected Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Known as ‘The Crafty’
Robert the Devil (c. 1009 - 1035) Third Duke of Normandy, father of William the Conqueror
Roger Borsa (c. 1060 - 1111) Legitimate but ineffectual son of Robert Guiscard; succeeded his father as Duke of Apulia and Calabria
Roger II (1095 - 1154) First Norman king of Sicily; remembered as its greatest ruler
Rollo (c. 860 - 931) Viking raider who founded Normandy
Tancred de Hauteville (c. 980 - 1041) Poor Norman knight and founder of the Hauteville family; father of at least twelve sons including William Iron-Arm, Drogo, Robert Guiscard, and Count Roger
Tancred of Galilee (1075 - 1112) Nephew of Bohemond I; regent of Antioch in Bohemond’s absence
Tancred of Lecce (d. 1194) Last Norman ruler of Sicily; seized the kingdom when William the Good died. Nicknamed ‘the Monkey king’
Tostig (c. 1026 - 1066) Younger brother of Ha
rold; killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge while attempting to return from exile
William Iron-Arm (c. 1005 - 1046) Eldest of the Hauteville brothers; elected Duke of Apulia and Calabria
William Longsword (c. 900 - 942) Son of Rollo; second ruler of Normandy
William the Bad (1131 - 1166) Son of Roger II and second king of Sicily
William the Conqueror (c. 1026 - 1087) Illegitimate son of Robert the Devil, conquered England in 1066
William the Good (1155 - 1189) Third king and last legitimate Hauteville ruler of Sicily
PLACES
Aachen: Capital of the Holy Roman Empire
Apulia: Region of southern Italy including the ‘heel’ of the peninsula. Became the center of Norman power under Robert Guiscard
Byzantine Empire: (330 - 1453) The eastern half of the old Roman Empire
Calabria: Region of southern Italy forming the ‘toe’ of the peninsula
Constantinople: Capital of the Byzantine Empire
Holy Roman Empire: (962 - 1806) Central European State that claimed to be the rebirth of the old Western Roman Empire. Despite its name it was based largely in modern day Germany
Norman Kingdom of Sicily: (1130 - 1194) Founded by Roger II; included Sicily, the south of Italy, and parts of North Africa
Palermo: Capital of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily
Papal States: Collection of lands around Rome ruled directly by the pope. Often in conflict with its immediate neighbors, the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, and the Holy Roman Empire
Principality of Antioch: (1098 - 1268) Crusader State based around the major city of Antioch; founded by Bohemond I during the First Crusade
VARIOUS
Battle of Civitate: (1053) Norman defeat of the armies of Pope Leo IX; resulted in papal recognition of Hauteville rule in southern Italy
First Crusade: (1098) Launched by Pope Urban II to reclaim the Holy Lands from Islam
Fourth Crusade: (1204) Venetian-led crusade which sacked Constantinople
Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte: Agreement between Rollo and Charles the Simple that created Normandy
Varangian Guard: Elite forces of the Byzantine army. Usually composed of Norse or Anglo-Saxon warriors
The Papal States
When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century, it left a political vacuum on the Italian peninsula The pope, virtually the only figure of significant standing, gradually filled the void, assuming political control over Rome. In 756 this de facto control was made official by the Frankish ruler, Pepin, who had recently defeated a Lombard invasion that threatened Rome. In exchange for the title of king, Pepin ‘donated’ his newly-conquered lands surrounding the two cities of Rome and Ravenna to the pope. The resulting Papal States (also called the Republic of Saint Peter) were ruled directly by the popes until the nineteenth century when they were dissolved during the Risorgimento (unification of Italy).
The exact borders and power of the Papal States fluctuated considerably during the middle ages. At their greatest extent they covered the modern central Italian regions of Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and part of Emilia-Romagna. This territory was guarded by the papal armies, which were commanded in the field by mercenaries, or on occasion, by the pope himself. This period of papal history is best represented by the Renaissance pontiff, Julius II, who built an army around a core of Swiss mercenaries and gained the epithet the Warrior Pope for his frequent military excursions.
After the unification of Italy in 1871, the pope’s temporal power was restricted to the walls of the Vatican compound, but even that was in doubt. In 1929, an accommodation was reached with the Italian government, which recognized an independent state of ‘Vatican City’. It is still protected by Julius’ Swiss Guard, a remnant of the time when popes fought temporal - as well as spiritual - wars.
On Romans, Holy Romans, and Byzantines
Clarity about the past is often sought by oversimplifying it. History is broken down into digestible chunks with neat borders and labels which, however useful, can sometimes be misleading. Dates which were hardly noticed at the time become watershed years, and epochs and ages are given names which would have been unrecognizable to those living during them.
When national or imperial pride gets involved, the resulting propaganda usually muddies the water even further. The Middle Ages had two rival empires both claiming to be the true Roman Empire. For most of their history neither of them actually controlled Rome, yet both had claims on its legacy.
The confusion stems from the third century AD when the Roman emperor, Diocletian, decided to split the old Roman Empire in half. The western half, with its capital in Italy, collapsed in the fifth century (the traditional date is 476), but the eastern portion survived until 1453 when a Turkish invasion and the guns of the modern world finally brought it down.
Since the eastern half was centered on Constantinople, the old Greek city of Byzantium (modern day Istanbul), modern historians refer to it as ‘The Byzantine Empire’ or simply ‘Byzantium’. Its location in the thoroughly hellenized east meant that Greek became the preferred language, so Byzantium is sometimes referred to as the Greek empire. Nonetheless, it is important to note that while it existed, both friends and enemies alike viewed it as Roman, and drew no artificial distinctions between the empire of Rome and that of Byzantium.
The medieval competitor to the ‘Byzantine’ Empire arrived on Christmas Day in the year 800. During a Mass in Rome, Pope Leo III (for political reasons of his own) placed a crown on the Frankish king Charlemagne’s head and named him Imperator Romanorum, announcing that the defunct Western Empire had been reborn. This version of the empire, however, which spanned both French and Germanic lands, was based in present day Germany and never completely controlled Italy. Because of this, and in an attempt to simplify a complex series of events, most historians refer to Charlemagne’s coronation anachronistically as the start of the Holy Roman Empire or the German Empire. Politically, Charlemagne’s state fell apart almost immediately, and when his direct line petered out in less than a century, the title of Roman Emperor soon followed it. In 962 the German Otto I (a distant relative of Charlemagne) revived the title, and in 1157 his successor Frederick Barbarossa officially added the term sacrum (holy) to his title.
This German-speaking, Holy Roman Empire may have been - as Voltaire put it – neither ‘holy’, nor ‘roman’, nor (since the emperor was elected) an ‘empire’ – but it was resilient. It survived until the nineteenth century when, in a fit of Enlightenment pique, Napoleon swept it away.
For clarity’s sake I refer to the Greek-speaking eastern empire as ‘Byzantine’, and the German-speaking western one as ‘German’ throughout the book.
List of Emperors
HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS
Carolingian Dynasty
800- 14 Charlemagne (Charles I)
814- 40 Louis I the Pious
840- 55 Lothair I
855- 75 Louis II
875- 77 Charles II (the Bald)
881- 7 Charles III (the Fat)
Guideschi Dynasty
891- 4 Guy III
894- 8 Lambert II
Non-Dynastic
896- 9 Arnulf
901- 5 Louis III
915- 24 Berengar
Saxon Dynasty
962- 73 Otto I the Great
973- 83 Otto II
996-1002 Otto III
1014- 24 Henry II
Salian Dynasty
1027- 39 Conrad II
1046- 56 Henry III
1084- 1105 Henry IV
1111- 25 Henry V
Non-Dynastic
1133- 7 Lothair III
Hohenstaufen Dynasty (*non-dynastic)
1155- 90 Frederick I Barbarossa
1191- 7 Henry VI
1209- 15 Otto IV*
1220- 50 Frederick II
BYZANTINE EMPERORS
Macedonian Dynasty (867-1056)
867-886 Basil I the Macedonian
886-912 Leo
VI the Wise
912-913 Alexander
913-959 Constantine VII the Purple-born
920-959 Romanus I Lecapenus
959-963 Romanus II
963-969 Nicephorus II Phocas
969-976 John I Tzimisces
963-1025 Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer
1025-1028 Constantine VIII
1028-1034 Romanus III
1034-1041 Michael IV
1041-1042 Michael V
1042 Zoë and Theodora
1042-1055 Constantine IX
1055-1056 Theodora
Non-Dynastic (1056-1059)
1056-1057 Michael VI the Old
1057-1059 Isaac I Comnenus
Ducas Dynasty (1059-1081)
1059-1067 Constantine X
1068-1071 Romanus IV Diogenes
1071-1078 Michael VII
1078-1081 Nicephorus III
Comneni Dynasty (1081-1185)
1081-1118 Alexius I Comnenus
1118-1143 John II the Beautiful
1143-1180 Manuel I
1180-118 Alexius II
1183-1185 Andronicus I the Terrible
Angelus Dynasty (1185-1204)