The Normans in Southern Italy
When the Normans entered Italy around the early 11th century, they entered a world where all three Abrahamic religions sought to control the decentralized southern territories. To the north, the continuous struggles of the Christian world were split between the churchly kingdom of the Papal States and the feudal realm of the Holy Roman Empire. Despite having a massive Catholic presence in southern Italy, the two factions had bitter rivalries brewing that bled into the rest of Italy. On one hand, the Lombardic Duchies of Capua and Salerno backed their Germanic allies in the Holy Roman Empire. On the other hand, the domains of Benevento backed the Pope. The faction that kept the two forces at bay from attacking one another was the southern claims of the Byzantine Empire, which held key cities and ports across the Apulian and Calabrian realms. While that was going on, the rest of southern Italy was either controlled by independent Italian merchant republics or by Sunni Berbers on the islands of Sicily and Malta.
The Normans immediately made themselves available as mercenaries, aiding in many petty skirmishes on behalf of the different domains of the Lombards, Italians, and Byzantines. Eventually, two Normans were given different domains in the Italian Peninsula, with Robert Guiscard de Hauteville receiving the County of Melfi in 1046 CE and Richard Drengot receiving the County of Aversa in 1049 CE. With a place to call their own, the Normans began to expand rapidly across the Italian Peninsula. Mainly under the command of Robert Guiscard (roughly translated to Robert “the Cunning”), the Normans expanded and conquered the domains of Salerno, Benevento, and Amalfi, eventually being crowned Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1059 CE. The title of Duke was given to Robert de Hauteville by Pope Nicholas II during the same year.
The Norman domains continued to expand in the Norman wars against the Byzantines, who were allied with the Venetians and the Holy Roman Empire. With the conclusion of the Siege of Bari in 1071 CE, the Normans did the unthinkable and defeated both the Byzantines and the Germans in a war where they were outmatched. Their victory solidified their claims to all Byzantine holdings in Apulia and Calabria, ending the Byzantine’s 500-year reign and presence in the region. With their neighbors subdued, the Normans began to focus more on their remaining neighbors in Naples and Capua. More importantly, the stage was being set to conclude one of many conflicts with the Berbers on the island of Sicily, where the Normans had already captured key Sicilian ports and cities in the region.
