In 999, Norman pilgrims, returning from the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, landed in Salerno, where they were hospitably received by Prince Guaimar III. At this time, from Africa, the city was attacked by the Saracens, who demanded tribute. Although Guaimar began to raise funds to pay tribute, the Normans began to blame the Lombards for cowardice and immediately attacked the besiegers. The Saracens fled, and the grateful Guaimar pleaded with the Normans to remain. They refused, but promised to bring his rich gifts to his compatriots in Normandy and tell them about the reward offered by the prince to every Norman who would enter military service in Salerno.
Another early mention of the arrival of Normans in Italy dates back to 1016. Norman pilgrims met up with Melus in Monte Gargano, who convinced them to join him during the attack on Apulia, which belonged to Byzantium.
Lombard uprising
In 1017, a Lombard uprising broke out in Bari against the Byzantines, led by Melus, who used a newly arrived group of Normans. The Byzantine emperor sent a detachment of the elite Varangian Guard to the aid. In 1018, opponents clashed at the River Ofanto, near the site of the Battle of Cannes , in which Hannibal defeated the Romans in 216 B.C.. Byzantines won.
It is worth noting that in 1019 the Byzantine garrison in Troy consisted of Norman mercenaries.
Melfi and Avers counties
In 1030, the Duke of Neapolitan Sergius IV granted the hand of his sister and the county of Aversa (1030) to the leader of the Normans, Rheinulf. Obverse was the first Norman state in southern Italy.
Soon the Normans, led by William, the Iron Hand conquered Melfi from the Byzantines and made Apulia the capital of the duchy.
Conquest of Sicily
In June 1059, Pope Nicholas II granted the Norman knight Robert Guiscard the title of Duke of Sicily, and Robert took the vassal oath to the Pope for the island. From that moment on, Guiscard considered himself the rightful master of Sicily and was only looking for a reason to begin his conquest.
The Sicilian Emirate opposed to the Normans at that moment actually split into three states. The northwestern part of the island (with Palermo, Trapani and Mazara ) was ruled by Abdullah Ibn Haukal; southeast (with Catania and Syracuse ) – controlled Ibn al-Timnakh, the center of the island with its capital in Enna was ruled by Ibn al-Havas. All three emirs were in a state of permanent conflict with each other and refused to recognize the power of the Kairuan Zyrid. In addition, the Orthodox constituted a majority in the eastern and influential minority in the western regions of Sicily, which allowed the Normans to hope for support on the island itself.
In February 1061, the Arab emir of Catania and Syracuse Ibn al-Timnakh, having suffered a crushing defeat from his neighbor, the ruler of Enna, arrived in Mileto asking for help. For this, the emir agreed to recognize Guiscard as the supreme ruler of Sicily.
The reason for the war was obtained, but due to the permanent employment of Robert on the continent, the conquest of Sicily was carried out mainly by his younger brother Roger.
The Normans invaded Sicily in May 1061 and attacked Messina, taking her without a fight. Then Robert, Roger and Ibn at-Timnakh who came to their aid moved to the central part of the island, where they took a number of cities. Soon in Apulia, problems arose and Robert hastily returned to the mainland. Before leaving, he built the fortress of San Marco d’Alunzio – the first Norman castle in Sicily.
Soon after, the Normans defeated the Arabs in the battles of Enne (1061), Cerami (1064) and Misilmeri (1068), and in 1072 Roger took Palermo.
After the fall of Palermo, the Normans conquered the island for another eighteen years, and in 1090 Noto, the last free city of Sicily, voluntarily passed under the authority of Roger.
In 1091, the Normans, led by Roger I, conquered Malta from the Muslims.
The conquest of Salerno
After 1058, Salerno remained the only independent principality of Lombard in southern Italy. The territory of the principality decreased significantly during the ongoing conflicts with the Normans, but Robert Guiscard chose at this point to conclude an alliance with Salerno. Presumably in 1058-1059, he, declaring his previous marriage invalid because of close blood consanguinity, married Sishelgayit, sister of the Salerno Prince Gizulf II. For the sake of an alliance with Salerno, Robert even forced his brother Wilhelm of Principe to return to the principality the cities he had captured in Calabria.
The political alliance with Salerno proved fragile and short-lived. Gisulf II secretly supported Robert the rebellious barons of Apulia from Robert, concluded an alliance against Normans with Gregory VII, and also tried to subjugate Amalfi, whose inhabitants agreed to surrender under the patronage of Guiscard.
In the summer of 1076, Robert Guiscard laid siege to the city of Salerno. Prince Gizulf II, anticipating the attack, forced the townspeople to stock provisions for two years, but soon after the beginning of the siege, requisitioned stocks of his subjects, and then sold the products at fabulous prices. Exhausted by the hunger and tyranny of the prince, the inhabitants of Salerno themselves opened the gates of the city of Guiscard on December 13, 1076. Gisulf II with his brothers and a few supporters took refuge in the city citadel, but in May 1077 was forced to capitulate.
Robert Guiscard joined Salerno to his possessions, although he allowed Gisulf II and his brothers to leave the city. The capitulation of Gizulf was accompanied by anecdotal history in the spirit of Guiscard. Robert demanded that the surrendered prince give the Salernoe relic – the tooth of the evangelist Matthew, the patron saint of the city. Gisulf tried to deceive the winner, having sent an ordinary, absolutely not sacred tooth to him. The priest who was at Robert exposed the deception and the Duke of Puglia in his letter put Gizulf before a choice: to lose all his teeth or to give a relic. Gisulf humbled, gave the relic, and only after that he was allowed to leave Salerno.
Salerno became the capital of the Duchy of Puglia and on the orders of Robert, the construction of a grand cathedral in honor of the Evangelist Matthew began here. Salerno continued to play the role of the second, continental capital, and in the Sicilian kingdom.
Sources:
Loud, Graham Alexander. How was the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy?
Loud, Graham Alexander. Continuity and Norman Italy
Loud, Graham Alexander. . . “Coinage, Wealth and Plunder in the Age of Robert Guiscard.
Gay Jules. L’Italie meridionale et l’empire Byzantin: Livre II
Gravett, Christopher, and Nicolle, David. The Normans: Warrior Knights and their Castles
Houben, Hubert (translated by Graham A. Loud and Diane Milburn). Roger II of Sicily:
Jamison, Evelyn. The Norman Administration of Apulia and the Capua
Joranson, Einar. The Legend of History in Italy: Legend and History
Matthew, Donald. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily
Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130
Skinner, Patricia. Family Power in Southern Italy