Accident, Opportunity, and Family Ties: Norman "state-building" in Southern Italy, 999 - 1085
Open Access
Author:
Surface, Sean Christopher
Area of Honors:
History
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Keywords:
Norman Italy Kingdom of Sicily Norman Expansion Robert Guiscard Roger of Sicily
Abstract:
Accident, Opportunity, and Family Ties: Norman "State-Building" in Southern Italy 999-1085 analyzes the slow and tumultuous takeover of southern Italy and Sicily by Norman immigrants in the eleventh century. Inheriting from their forebears in Normandy a uniquely flexible definition of kinship, these invaders were highly adaptable to the chaotic political landscape of Italy in the High Middle Ages. Entering the scene as mercenaries, pilgrims, and adventurers seeking glory, over the course of the eleventh century they became bandits, then landowners, then counts beneath the native rulers, and finally achieved the status of ducal powers. With no apparent plan leading to this conquest, and many signs that they were possessed of a peerless ability to take advantage of their neighbors' disorder, the Normans under the (in)famous Robert Guiscard and his family created a powerful duchy, and by the middle of the twelfth century the Kingdom of Sicily, which would exert considerable influence over the affairs of the great powers of the papacy, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire throughout the Crusader Era. The translation of social values, particularly the role of kinship between the Norman rulers, and how these values affected the course of the conquest and its aftermath are the subject of this thesis.
