Vikings / Famous Vikings / Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard
Duke of Apulia and Calabria
- Lived
- c. 1015 – 1085
- Role
- Duke of Apulia and Calabria
Robert de Hauteville, called Guiscard ("the cunning"), left Normandy about 1047 to join his brothers as a mercenary in southern Italy and rose from brigand to prince. Invested by the pope as duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1059, he took Bari in 1071, ending Byzantine rule in Italy, and with his brother Roger captured Palermo in 1072. He defeated Emperor Alexios I at Dyrrhachium in 1081, rescued Pope Gregory VII from Rome in 1084, and died on campaign at Cephalonia.
Known for
- Norman conquest of southern Italy
- Captured Bari (1071) and Palermo (1072)
- Defeated the Byzantines at Dyrrhachium, 1081
In the story
Places
- 1Hauteville-la-Guichard, Normandy
- 2Bari, Italy
- 3Venosa, Italy (burial)
- 4Durrës (Dyrrhachium), Albania
On the timeline
Events that name Robert Guiscard
The 8 main events of 9. Each opens in the timeline.
- 18 June 1053 Battle of Civitate Pope Leo IX leads an army of Italians, Lombards and Swabian infantry against the Normans of southern Italy. About 3,000 Norman…
- 1057 Robert Guiscard Becomes Count of Apulia Humphrey of Hauteville, count of the Normans in Apulia, dies and his half-brother Robert, called Guiscard ('the cunning'), takes…
- 23 August 1059 Treaty of Melfi At a synod in Melfi, Pope Nicholas II invests Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia and Calabria and, 'in future', of Sicily, which…
- May 1061 Normans Invade Sicily and Take Messina Invited by the emir Ibn al-Thumna, who is at war with a rival, Roger of Hauteville and his brother Robert Guiscard ship knights…
- April 1071 Fall of Bari Ends Byzantine Italy After a siege of nearly three years, begun in August 1068, Robert Guiscard takes Bari, capital of the Byzantine province of…
- 10 January 1072 Normans Capture Palermo After a five-month siege by land and sea, Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger break into Palermo, one of the largest cities of…
- 18 October 1081 Battle of Dyrrhachium Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond, invading the Byzantine Empire, face Emperor Alexios I Komnenos outside Dyrrhachium. The…
- May 1084 Robert Guiscard Sacks Rome Pope Gregory VII, besieged in Castel Sant'Angelo by Emperor Henry IV, calls on his Norman vassal. Robert Guiscard marches north…
Picture: Robert_Guiscard_(by_Merry-Joseph_Blondel), Merry-Joseph Blondel · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.