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Birth:          1015 Normandy
Death:          17 Jul 1085 Cephalonia

Notes
Norman conqueror of southern Italy
a Crusader
a leader of the First Crusade
captured at Antioch
m 1058/1059
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Guiscard
Robert Guiscard (c.?1015 – 17 July 1085) was a Norman adventurer remembered for 
the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. Robert was born into the Hauteville family in 
Normandy, went on to become Count of Apulia and Calabria (1057–1059), and then 
Duke of Apulia and Calabria and Duke of Sicily (1059–1085), and shortly Prince of 
Benevento (1078-1081) before returning the title to the Pope.

His sobriquet, in contemporary Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, is often 
rendered "the Resourceful", "the Cunning", "the Wily", "the Fox", or "the Weasel". In 
Italian sources he is often Roberto il Guiscardo or Roberto d'Altavilla (from Robert de 
Hauteville).
Background[edit]

From 999 to 1042 the Normans in Italy, coming first as pilgrims, were mainly 
mercenaries serving at various times the Byzantines and a number of Lombard nobles.
[1] The first of the independent Norman Lords was Rainulf Drengot who established 
himself in the fortress of Aversa becoming Count of Aversa and Duke of Gaeta.[2]

In 1038 there arrived William Iron-Arm and Drogo, the two eldest sons of Tancred of 
Hauteville, a petty noble of the Cotentin in Normandy.[3] The two joined in the revolt 
of the Lombards against Byzantine control of Apulia. By 1040 the Byzantines had lost 
most of that province. In 1042 Melfi was chosen as the Norman capital, and in 
September of that year the Normans elected as their count William Iron-Arm, who was 
succeeded in turn by his brothers Drogo, Comes Normannorum totius Apuliæ e 
Calabriæ ("the Count of all Normans in Apulia and Calabria"), and Humphrey, who 
arrived about 1044.

Early years[edit]

Robert Guiscard was the sixth son of Tancred of Hauteville and eldest by his second 
wife Fressenda.[4] According to the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, he left 
Normandy with only five mounted riders and thirty followers on foot.[5] Upon arriving in 
Langobardia in 1047, he became the chief of a roving robber-band. Anna Comnena 
also leaves a physical description of Guiscard:

This Robert was Norman by birth, of obscure origins, with an overbearing character 
and a thoroughly villainous mind; he was a brave fighter, very cunning in his assaults 
on the wealth and power of great men; in achieving his aims absolutely inexorable, 
diverting criticism by incontrovertible argument. He was a man of immense stature, 
surpassing even the biggest men; he had a ruddy complexion, fair hair, broad 
shoulders, eyes that all but shot out sparks of fire. In a well-built man one looks for 
breadth here and slimness there; in him all was admirably well-proportioned and 
elegant... Homer remarked of Achilles that when he shouted his hearers had the 
impression of a multitude in uproar, but Robert’s bellow, so they say, put tens of 
thousands to flight.[5]
 
Lands were scarce in Apulia at the time and the roving Guiscard could not expect any 
grant from Drogo, then reigning, for Humphrey had just received his own county of 
Lavello. Guiscard soon joined Prince Pandulf IV of Capua in his ceaseless wars with 
Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno (1048). The next year, however, Guiscard left Pandulf, 
according to Amatus of Montecassino because Pandulf reneged on a promise of a 
castle and his daughter's hand. Guiscard returned to his brother Drogo and asked to 
be granted a fief. Drogo, who had just finished campaigning in Calabria, gave 
Guiscard command of the fortress of Scribla. Dissatisfied with this position, Guiscard 
moved to the castle of San Marco Argentano (after which he later named the first 
Norman castle in Sicily, at the site of ancient Aluntium).

During his time in Calabria, Guiscard married his first wife, Alberada De Macon, known 
in Italy as Alberada of Buonalbergo. She was the daughter of Reginald I, Count of 
Burgundy, also known as Renaud I De Macon (Raynald I), Baron of Buonalbergo, and 
Girard of Buonalbergo, and his wife Alice of Normandy.

Guiscard soon rose to distinction. The Lombards turned against their erstwhile allies, 
and Pope Leo IX determined to expel the Norman freebooters. His army was defeated, 
however, at the Battle of Civitate sul Fortore in 1053 by the Normans, united under 
Humphrey. Humphrey commanded the centre against the pope's Swabian troops. Early 
in the battle Count Richard of Aversa, commanding the right van, put the Lombards to 
flight and chased them down, then returned to help rout the Swabians. Guiscard had 
come all the way from Calabria to command the left. His troops were held in reserve 
until, seeing Humphrey's forces ineffectually charging the pope's centre, he called up 
his father-in-law's reinforcements and joined the fray, distinguishing himself personally, 
even being dismounted and remounting again three separate times, according to 
William of Apulia. Honored for his actions at Civitate, Guiscard succeeded Humphrey 
as count of Apulia in 1057, over his elder half-brother Geoffrey. In company with 
Roger, his youngest brother, Guiscard carried on the conquest of Apulia and Calabria, 
while Richard conquered the principality of Capua.

Rule[edit]

Soon after his succession, probably in 1058, Guiscard separated from his wife 
Alberada because they were related within the prohibited degrees. Shortly after, he 
married Sichelgaita, the sister of Gisulf II of Salerno, Guaimar's successor. In return 
for giving him his sister's hand, Gisulf demanded that Guiscard destroy two castles of 
his brother William, count of the Principate, which had encroached on Gisulf's 
territory.

The reformist Papacy, at odds with the Holy Roman Emperor (due to the Investiture 
Controversy) and the Roman nobility itself, resolved to recognize the Normans and 
secure them as allies. Therefore, at the Council of Melfi, on 23 August 1059, Pope 
Nicholas II invested Guiscard as duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.[6] Guiscard, now 
"by the Grace of God and St Peter duke of Apulia and Calabria and, if either aid me, 
future lord of Sicily", agreed to hold his titles and lands by annual rent of the Holy See 
and to maintain its cause. In the next twenty years he undertook a series of 
conquests, winning his Sicilian dukedom.

Subjection of Calabria[edit]

At the time of the opening of the Melfitan council in June, Guiscard had been leading 
an army in Calabria, the first strong attempt to subjugate that Byzantine province since 
the campaigns of Iron-Arm with Guaimar. After attending the synod for his investiture, 
Guiscard returned to Calabria, where his army was besieging Cariati. After his arrival, 
Cariati submitted and, before winter was out, Rossano and Gerace followed. Only 
Reggio was left in Byzantine hands when Guiscard returned to Apulia. In Apulia, he 
worked to remove the Byzantine garrisons from Taranto and Brindisi, before, largely in 
preparation for his planned Sicilian expedition, he returned again to Calabria, where 
Roger was waiting with siege engines.

The fall of Reggio, after a long and arduous siege, and the subsequent capitulation of 
Scilla, an island citadel to which the Reggian garrison had fled, opened up the way to 
Sicily. Roger first led a tiny force to attack Messina but was repulsed easily by the 
Saracen garrison. The large invading force that could have been expected did not 
materialise, for Guiscard was recalled by a new Byzantine army, sent by Constantine X 
Doukas, ravaging Apulia. In January 1061, Melfi itself was under siege, and Roger too 
was recalled. But the full weight of Guiscard's forces forced the Byzantines to retreat 
and by May Apulia was calm.

Sicilian campaigns[edit]

 Norman progress in Sicily during Robert's expeditions to the Balkans: Capua, Apulia 
and Calabria, and the County of Sicily are Norman. The Emirate of Sicily, the Duchy of 
Naples and lands in the Abruzzo (in the southern Duchy of Spoleto) are not yet 
conquered.
Main article: Norman conquest of Sicily

Guiscard invaded Sicily with his brother Roger, capturing Messina in 1061 with 
comparable ease: they landed unsighted during the night and surprised the Saracen 
army.[7] This success gave them control over the Strait of Messina.[7] Guiscard 
immediately fortified Messina and allied himself with Ibn at-Timnah, one of the rival 
emirs of Sicily, against Ibn al-Hawas, another emir. The armies of Guiscard, his 
brother, and his Moslem friend marched into central Sicily by way of Rometta, which 
had remained loyal to al-Timnah. They passed through Frazzanò and the pianura di 
Maniace, where George Maniakes and the first Hautevilles had distinguished 
themselves 21 years prior. Guiscard assaulted the town of Centuripe, but resistance 
was strong, and he moved on. Paternò fell, and Guiscard brought his army to Enna 
(then Castrogiovanni), a formidable fortress. The Saracens sallied forth and were 
defeated, but Enna itself did not fall. Guiscard turned back, leaving a fortress at San 
Marco d'Alunzio, named after his first stronghold in Calabria. He returned to Apulia 
with Sichelgaita for Christmas.

He returned in 1064, but bypassed Enna making straight for Palermo. His campsite 
was infested with tarantulas, however, and had to be abandoned. The campaign was 
unsuccessful, though a later campaign, in 1072, saw Palermo fall, and for the rest of 
Sicily it was only then a matter of time. As a result of his Sicilian campaign, Guiscard 
was referred to as "Black Shirt Robert" because throughout the campaign he wore 
elegant clothing with imported dyes that ran together resulting in black clothing.[8]

Against the Byzantines[edit]
 
 Bari was reduced in April 1071, and Byzantine forces were finally ousted from 
southern Italy. The territory around Salerno was already held by Guiscard, and in 
December 1076 he took the city, expelling its Lombard prince Gisulf, whose sister 
Sichelgaita he had married. The Norman attacks on Benevento, a papal fief, alarmed 
and angered Pope Gregory VII. Pressured by the emperor, Henry IV, Gregory VII 
turned again to the Normans, and at Ceprano in June 1080, he reinvested Guiscard, 
securing him also in the southern Abruzzi, while reserving Salerno.[clarification 
needed]

In his last enterprise, Guiscard mounted an attack on the Byzantine Empire, taking up 
the cause of Raiktor, a monk pretending to be Michael VII,[9] who had been deposed 
in 1078 and to whose son Guiscard's daughter had been betrothed. He sailed with 
16,000 men, including 1,300 Norman knights, against the empire in May 1081. He 
defeated Emperor Alexius I Comnenus at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in October 1081, 
and by February 1082 he had occupied Corfu and Durazzo. He was recalled to the aid 
of Gregory VII, however, who was besieged in Castel Sant'Angelo by Henry IV, in June 
1083. Also in 1083, Guiscard destroyed the town of Cannae, leaving only the 
cathedral and bishop's residence.[10] Guiscard was ally to kingdom of Duklja and 
Constantine Bodin. In 1081 he married his vassal's daughter Jaquinta of Bari to Bodin.

In May 1084, Guiscard marched north with 36,000 men, entered Rome, and forced 
Henry to retire. A rebellion, or seditious tumult (émeute), of the citizens led to a 
three-day sack of the city, after which Guiscard escorted the pope to Rome. 
Guiscard's son Bohemund, for a time master of Thessaly, had now lost the Byzantine 
conquests. Guiscard returned with 150 ships to restore them, and he occupied Corfu 
and Kefalonia with the help of Ragusa and the Dalmatian cities (which were under the 
rule of Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia).[11] On 17 July 1085, Guiscard died of fever at 
Atheras, north of Lixouri, along with 500 Norman knights.[12][13] He was buried in the 
Hauteville family mausoleum of the Abbey of the Santissima Trinità at Venosa. The 
town of Fiscardo on Kefalonia is named after him.

Guiscard was succeeded by Roger Borsa, his son by Sichelgaita, as Bohemund, his 
son by an earlier wife Alberada De Macon (aka Alberada of Buonalbergo), was set 
aside. Guiscard left two younger sons: Guy of Hauteville and Robert Scalio, neither of 
whom made any trouble for their elder brothers. At his death Guiscard was duke of 
Apulia and Calabria, prince of Salerno, and suzerain of Sicily. His successes had been 
due not only to his great qualities but to the "entente" with the Papal See. He created 
and enforced a strong ducal power, which was nevertheless met by many baronial 
revolts, including one in 1078, when he demanded from the Apulian vassals an "aid" 
on the betrothal of his daughter. In conquering such wide territories he had little time 
to organize them internally. In the history of the Norman kingdom of Italy, Guiscard 
remains essentially the hero and founder, though his career ended in "something of a 
dead end,"[14] while his nephew Roger II was the statesman and organizer.

Religion[edit]

Due to his conquest of Calabria and Sicily, Guiscard was instrumental in bringing Latin 
Christianity to an area that had historically followed the Byzantine rite. Guiscard laid 
the foundation of the Salerno Cathedral and of a Norman monastery at Sant'Eufemia in 
Calabria. This latter monastery, famous for its choir, began as a community of eleven 
monks from Saint-Evroul in Normandy under the abbot Robert de Grantmesnil.

Although his relationship with the pope was rocky, Guiscard preferred to be on good 
terms with the papacy, and he made a gesture of abandoning his first wife in response 
to church law. While the popes were often fearful of his growing power, they preferred 
the strong and independent hand of a Catholic Norman to the rule of a Byzantine 
Greek. Guiscard received his investment with Sicily at the hands of Pope Nicholas II, 
who feared the opposition of the Holy Roman Emperor to the Papal reforms more. 
Guiscard supported the reforms, coming to the rescue of a besieged Pope Gregory VII, 
who had once excommunicated him for encroaching on the territory of the Papal 
States. After the Great Schism of 1054, the polarized religious atmosphere served to 
strengthen Guiscard's alliance with papal forces, resulting in a formidable papal-
Norman opposition to the Eastern Empire.[15]

In literature[edit]

In the Divine Comedy, Dante sees Guiscard's spirit in the Heaven of Mars, along with 
other "warriors of the faith" who exemplify the cardinal virtue of fortitude. In the 
Inferno, Dante describes Guiscard's enemies as a field of mutilated shades stretching 
out to the horizon.[16]

Guiscard was the protagonist of Kleist's verse drama Robert Guiskard, incomplete at 
the author's death (1811).[17]

Historical fiction novels covering the early years of the dynasty, from the arrival of the 
brothers in Italy to the conquest of Sicily, is covered in Jack Ludlow's trilogy 
Mercenaries, Warriors and Conquest.

Marriage and issue[edit]
 
Married in 1051 to Alberada of Buonalbergo (1032 – aft. July 1122)[4] and had:
Bohemund.[4]
Emma (b. 1052 or after), married to Odo the Good Marquis[citation needed]

Married in 1058 or 1059 to Sichelgaita[4] and had:
Matilda (also Mahalta, Maud, or Maude; 1059 – aft. 1085), married Ramon Berenguer 
II, Count of Barcelona.[4]
Roger Borsa,[4] duke of Apulia and Calabria
Mabile, married to William de Grantmesnil.[4]
Gersent, married to Hugh V of Maine, repudiated.[18]
Robert Scalio[citation needed]
Guy, Byzantine sebastos[4]
Sibylla, married to Ebles de Ramerupt, 4th Count of Roucy and had 8 children.[19]
Olympias (renamed Helena), betrothed to Constantine Doukas, son of Michael VII in 
August 1074, contract broken off in 1078.[citation needed]

Parents
DE HAUTEVILLE Tancred ( 970 - )
OF NORMANDY Fredesende (Fredestina) (ABT  995 - 1057)

Siblings
DE HAUTEVILLE Robert I "Guiscard" (1015 - 17 Jul 1085)
OF SICILY Roger I (ABT 1031 - 22 Jun 1101)

Marriage To ____ Albereda (Alverade) (ABT 1032 - AFT Jul 1122)
    m. ABT 1048 dv. 1058 

Notes


Children by ____ Albereda (Alverade) ABT 1032 - AFT Jul 1122
GUISCARD ----- (ABT 1049 - )
____ Bohemond I (1052 - 3 Mar 1111)

Marriage To DE SALERNO Sikelgaita (1040 - 16 Apr 1090)
    m. ABT 1058 

Notes

Parents
____ Guaimar (Waimar) IV (ABT 1013 - 3 Jun 1052)
____ Gemma (ABT 1015 - )

Children by DE SALERNO Sikelgaita 1040 - 16 Apr 1090
D'APULIA Mathilda (Maud) (ABT 1058 - ABT 1112)

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