Image: Illustration of combat between Byzantine and Norman Knights.
In the year 1040, a force of Lombard and Norman mercenaries were fighting alongside the Byzantine Empire in Sicily to reclaim the island from the Arab Emirate which had conquered it several years previously. Eastern Roman 'Byzantine' rule had been fairly weak in Southern Italy ever since they had moved their capital east to Constantinople hundreds of years before, effectively ending the western Roman Empire. The Byzantine elite in Constantinople had never truly stopped attempting to maintain control over their ancestral homeland however, despite waves of invaders flooding in over the centuries, culminating most recently in the Lombards.
Despite dispossessing the previous Roman elite and inheriting much of the previously Roman lands, the Lombards had at least since converted to Christianity and settled down to some extent. The Normans on the other hand were comparable newcomers in Italy. Themselves being descended from Norse raiders who had settled in Northern France in the Ninth Century and subsequently converted to Christianity and adopted French customs. They continued to retain their opportunistic and adventuring culture and were experts in the art of warfare. The force of Normans who fought alongside the Byzantines in 1040 contained no major nobles, rather it was composed of petty lords who had travelled to Italy in the previous few years to carve out fortunes for themselves.
As the sun sat high in the sky and a breach was made in the besieged walls of Syracuse, a single Norman Knight is said to have rode forth at the head of a sally of his men to do single combat against the Emir of the city. In the ensuing fight, William De Hauteville did just that and killed the Emir outright, earning himself the respect of the Byzantine elite and a new name - ‘Iron Arm’. William was the epitome of a new breed of Norman adventurers who over the next century would go on to change the face of southern Italy entirely, and carve themselves out a Kingdom in the process.
William had been born back in around 1010 and was the first of twelve sons of Tancred de Hauteville, a petty lord who held a modest estate in the Cotentin peninsula of Normandy. He in turn could supposedly trace his lineage back to Hiallt, a Norseman active in the early Tenth Century and the supposed founder of the village of Hauteville, meaning 'High Town' from which the family took its name. In 1035, William travelled to Southern Italy with his younger brother Drogo in response to a call from Count Rainulf Dengot, lord of Aversa, for able-bodied men to come to his aid in return for vast riches there for the taking. Aversa was the first Norman foothold in southern Italy and ambitious men flocked to answer the call. Norman mercenaries such as Dengot had been active in the region for some time as swords for hire, but now they began to actively claim lands for themselves at the expense of the existing powers in the region.
Between 1038 and 1040, William fought for the Byzantines in Sicily alongside his brother Drogo against the Emirate of Syracuse which had held the island for many years. William was an exceptional warrior and courageous in the face of battle and he began to develop a reputation even amongst the feared Norman Knights, miltaristic Lombards and elite Byzantine Varagian Guard he served with. This culminated in that fateful sally when he single handedly killed the Emir. The coalition soon fell apart however after a dispute between the Byzantine leader George Maniakes and the Lombards. After Maniakes and much of the Byzantine forces returned to Constantinople to fight rebellions elsewhere in the empire, the Lombards rose up in revolt against their rule. Never ones to miss out on a chance to claim some land and loot, the Normans joined the revolt as well, soon rising to lead it in battle after many of the Lombard leaders were subsequently bought off by the Byzantines. By late 1042, the rebellion was almost entirely Norman in character and William elected leader.
The Normans were then able to negotiate an alliance with the last other leading authority left in southern Italy, the Prince of Salerno, Guaimar IV, and received several castles and strongholds to rule over as a result, as well as solidifying the alliance with marriages . Together they began the conquests of the rest of southern Italy, specifically the two areas bordering Salerno; Apulia to the east along the Adriatic Coast and Calabria, the 'toe of the boot' to the south, thus laying the foundations for the Norman Kingdom of Sicily which would be officially founded in 1130 by Roger II, also a Hauteville. The period also marked the beginning of a great theological change in belief and culture in southern Italy. Instead of looking towards Constantinople in the east for guidance, people now began to look to the Papacy in Rome, and the 'Holy Roman Emperor' to the north. This epitomised a change in world view which would culminate in the schism between the eastern and western churches in 1054 and have huge repercussions for the future of Italy, ensuring it would be Roman Catholic in culture in the future rather than Eastern Orthodox.
William was finally defeated in battle in 1045 by Argyrus, a Lombard lord, and died early in the next year. He was succeeded by his brother Drogo, who became the foremost leader amongst the Normans in Italy. Soon afterwards Drogo would legally be titled ‘The Count of the Normans in all Apulia and Calabria', a precursor to the Kingdom which would soon follow. The Hautevilles would continue to be one of the most influential families in the region for centuries to come, also extending their influence far to the east with the foundation of the Principality of Antioch after the First Crusade.
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