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Robert Guiscard ( , ; – 17 July 1085), also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Normans adventurer remembered for his conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century.
Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, the sixth son of Tancred de Hauteville and his wife Fressenda. He inherited the County of Apulia and Calabria from his brother in 1057, and in 1059 he was made Duke of Apulia and Calabria and Lord of Sicily by Pope Nicholas II. He was also briefly Prince of Benevento (1078–1081), before returning the title to the papacy.
In 1038, William Iron Arm and Drogo, the eldest sons of Tancred of Hauteville (Seigneur of Hauteville-La-Guichard, a town in Cotentin, Normandy),Oscar Browning, A General History of the World (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1913), p. 316 and elder brothers of Robert Guiscard, arrived in Italy. The two joined a revolt against the Byzantine rule of Apulia, started by the Lombards. By 1040 the Byzantines had lost most of the province. In 1042 a group of Normans settled in Apulia and chose Melfi as their capital; in September of the same year they elected William Iron Arm as their count, 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 after him Humphrey, who arrived around 1044.
When Robert arrived in Apulia, lands were scarce, and thus he couldn't expect any land grant from his brother Drogo, then count (especially since Drogo had already given Humphrey the county of Lavello). In 1048, Guiscard joined Pandulf IV of Capua in a war against Guaimar IV of Salerno. The next year, however, he left the war. Chronicler Amatus of Montecassino says this was due to Pandulf denying a previous promise that he had made to Robert, which included the gift of a castle and his daughter's hand in marriage. Robert therefore returned to Drogo's court, and he asked his brother to grant him a fief. Drogo, who had just finished a military campaign in Calabria, granted him command of the fortress of Scribla, but Guiscard, dissatisfied, transferred to the castle of San Marco Argentano. During his time in Calabria, Robert married Alberada of Buonalbergo, under the promise of her nephew Girard of Buonalbergo that he would join Robert with his 200 knights if the marriage took place.
As the Normans gained more and more power in southern Italy, the Lombards, of whom they had been allies for a long time, turned against him. Pope Leo IX formed an anti-Norman coalition in an effort to expel them from the peninsula, but in 1053 he was defeated in the Battle of Civitate by the Norman forces, led by Humphrey, now count. Robert fought personally in the battle, and according to William of Apulia he was dismounted from his horse on three occasions, but he remounted every time.
The Papacy, in a conflict with the Holy Roman Emperor due to the Investiture Controversy, now opted to secure the Normans as allies. Therefore, in the Treaty of Melfi of 1059, Guiscard swore fealty to Pope Nicholas II. In return, Nicholas invested Guiscard of the titles of Duke of Apulia and Calabria and Lord of Sicily ( by the Grace of God and St Peter duke of Apulia and Calabria and, if either aid me, future lord of Sicily), legitimizing his intervention against the Muslim Sicily, of Islam faith. The Normans in Europe, Ed. & Trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 236–237
Robert and Roger returned to Sicily, where in 1061 they took Messina by surprise with comparable ease. After fortifying the city, Guiscard allied himself with the emir of Syracuse, Ibn al-Thimnah, against the emir of Enna, Ibn al-Hawwas. The forces of Robert, Roger and their Muslim ally marched into central Sicily through Rometta, conquering Paternò. They then tried to besiege Castrogiovanni, failing to conquer the fort. In 1063 Robert left for Apulia to spend Christmas with Sikelgaita, leaving behind the fort of San Marco d'Alunzio (which he had named after San Marco Argentano, his castle in Calabria). In 1064 he returned to Sicily, bypassing Castrogiovanni and going straight for Palermo. His campsite was however infested with , and the expedition was abandoned.
In 1071 the Norman County of Sicily was created, and given to Roger. A year later Palermo finally fell, and the rest of Sicily was gradually conquered. A last resistance was held by Benavert, emir of Syracuse, but he was ultimately defeated in 1086. The last Muslim holding in Sicily, Noto, fell in 1091. As a result of his Sicilian campaigns, Robert Guiscard is also referred to as "Black Shirt Robert" because throughout the campaign he wore elegant black clothing.
Robert firstly attacked the Principality of Salerno, held by his brother in law Gisulf II. Salerno was besieged and fell in December 1076, and Gisulf abandoned his castle with his court in May 1077. Robert then took the principality of Benevento in 1078. Pope Gregory VII was alarmed, as Benevento was considered possession of the Papal States. Nevertheless, he decided not to enter a conflict with the Normans, as he was already busy with Emperor Henry IV due to the investiture controversy. Simon de Crépy negotiated an alliance with Guiscard on behalf of Gregory VII, and in June 1080 the Pope gave Guiscard claims on Abruzzo, Salerno, Amalfi, and on the March of Fermo. Robert would later return Benevento to the papacy in 1081.
In May 1081 Robert sailed with an army of Norman and Lombard troops (1,300 knights according to Geoffrey Malaterra, up to 10,000 troops according to Orderic Vitalis). In October 1081 defeated Alexios I Komnenos in the Battle of Dyrrachium, and by 1082 he had occupied Corfu and Durazzo. In 1083, however, he was forced to return to Italy to help Pope Gregory VII, who was being besieged in Castel Sant'Angelo by Henry IV. In May 1084 Guiscard entered Rome, and forced Henry to retreat. A revolt of the citizens led to a three-day sack of the city, after which Robert escorted the Pope out of the city. Guiscard's son Bohemond, who had remained in the Balkans, had by this time lost his father's conquests. Robert returned to the Balkans and reoccupied Corfu and Cephalonia, with the help of Dubrovnik and other dalmatian cities under the rule of king Demetrius Zvonimir.Loud, pp. 214-217.Ferdo Šišić, Povijest Hrvata u vrijeme narodnih vladara, 1925, Zagreb
The descendants of Robert's brother, Roger I, Count of Sicily, would later create the Kingdom of Sicily.
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 Gregorian reform 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 East-West 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.Alexēs Geōrgiu K Sabbidēs, Byzantino-Normannica: The Norman Capture of Italy (to A.D. 1081) and the First Two Invasions in Byzantium (A.D. 1081–1085 and 1107–1108) (Leuven, Belgium; Dudley, Massachusetts: Peeters, 2007)
Guiscard and Alberada's marriage was later annulled, and in 1058 or 1059 he remarried to Sichelgaita. They had ten children:
Guiscard was the protagonist of Kleist's verse drama Robert Guiskard, incomplete at the author's death (1811).Olive Classe, Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English, Volume 1 (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000), p. 767
In Crusader Kings III, Robert Guiscard is represented as one of the recommended starting characters, being portrayed the Duke of Apulia. He starts with his own epithet, Robert "the Fox". Crusader Kings III - Legends of Crusader Kings III: Duke Robert
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