Normans in South Italy

Norman cathedral to schock and awe Trani

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The Norsemen had been settled in Normandy in the tenth century to stop them raiding and pillaging Paris. In the eleventh century, poor leadership and political unrest enabled William the bastard to win at Hastings in 1066 as every child knows. However, earlier in the century, a number of Normans returning from pilgrimage to Jerusalem were hired as mercenaries in southern Italy and made a name for themselves. Their success attracted others and by 1040 they were winning battles in their own right. Italy south of the Papal States had been governed by the Byzantines, mostly in the east and in Sicily, with Lombard principalities in the west of the mainland. Muslim raiders had captured Sicily and made life uncomfortable on the western mainland. In this context, the Normans worked together (mostly) and by 1080 had effectively captured and ruled all of southern Italy and most of Sicily.

Frederick II, chipped

The leaders of this transformation were all from the family of Hautevilles, many of them brothers. The star on the mainland was Robert (the fox) Guiscard, who reliably defeated larger armies sent against him by the (German) Holy Roman Emperor, the Pope and his various allies and the Byzantines. In Sicily, most of the work was done by his younger brother, whose son became Roger King of Sicily (which included the mainland) for the first part of the twelfth century. Lack of good leadership in his sons led to enemies looking to share in some of the wealth of the kingdom. His daughter Constance was taken out of her convent to be married to Henry Vi of Germany and at the age of 40 bore him a son, Frederick. Henry died and chaos reigned for a while until Frederick claimed his patrimony. Through his parents, Frederick was able to become both Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, posing a serious threat to the Pope.

Frederick's castle

Frederick, known as “the wonder of the world”, could speak seven languages, wrote a famous book on falconry from his own reading and observations, established a centralized bureaucracy and a university to provide it with bureaucrats and doctors. He has been credited with creating the first modern state. While the government of the kingdom passed first to the French and then to the Spanish and became progressively impoverished, the outlines remained intact until the resorgimento in 1860.

We’ve been looking at the massive Romanesque cathedrals built by the Normans to shock and awe their subjects and opponents. Where the Greeks had small churches and managed by bureaucracy, the Normans built fortress churches that soared into the sky with sheer walls and ruled by fear until they constructed a bureaucracy much later. Their churches were built using modular techniques for the basic components such as naves and columns and still make you gasp with their daring. A lot of columns and capitals from roman temples were recycled. Typically each church has a T-shaped floor plan with shallow apses, but BIG and TALL with opportunities for theatre and relics.

Pantocrator 12th C

Our last two days were around Salerno, where  Greco-Arabic medical knowledge was first translated for the West in the 11^thcentury. Those responsible were Alphanus of Salerno and Desiderius of Monte Cassino, together with Robert Guiscard. The political stability at Salerno in the preceding century had attracted wealthy merchants who could support learned doctors from Islam, Judaism, the Latin West and the Byzantine empire. The city became recognised for medical excellence to the extent that it's motto is still 'Civitas Hippocratico". They also built wonderful churches and used Byzantine artists and mosaicists to challenge Constantinople for dazzling effects.

We start walking the Amalfi cliffs tomorrow.