MEDIEVAL WARFARE Volume 1.4 November 2011

1-962014

Theme: Mercenaries and Mighty Warlords: The Normans in the Mediterranean

Among the Norman soldiers of fortune arriving in southern Italy in 1035 were two brothers, William and Drogo d'Hauteville. The young knights found the region known as the Mezzogiorno in turmoil. South of the Papal States lay four fiercely rivalrous Lombard principalities or duchies - Amalfi, Benevento, Capua and Salerno - nominally subordinate to the Holy Roman Empire or (in Benevento's case) the Pope. To the south of the Lombard states, the Byzantine Empire controlled Calabria and Apulia - the 'toe' and 'heel' of the peninsula - including numerous wealthy coastal towns.

In a Gordian knot of competition and shifting alliances, of intrigue and open warfare, each party - including the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy - vied against the others for control of the region. Very early in the eleventh century the Lombard rulers, the Byzantines, and individual cities and abbeys had begun hiring Norman mercenaries, luring them with generous salaries and the expectation of rich plunder.