1. Robert Guiscard 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.
27 Facts About Robert Guiscard
1. 2.
Robert Guiscard was briefly Prince of Benevento, before returning the title to the papacy.
3.
In 1038, William Iron Arm and Drogo, the eldest sons of Tancred of Hauteville, and elder brothers of Robert Guiscard, arrived in Italy.
4.
Robert Guiscard was born around 1015, a son of Tancred of Hauteville and his second wife Fressenda, and the sixth of Tancred's twelve sons.
5.
Robert Guiscard was a man of immense stature, surpassing even the biggest men; he had a ruddy complexion, fair hair, broad shoulders, eyes that all but shot out sparks of fire.
6.
When Robert Guiscard arrived in Apulia, lands were scarce, and thus he couldn't expect any land grant from his brother Drogo, then count.
7.
Chronicler Amatus of Montecassino says this was due to Pandulf denying a previous promise that he had made to Robert Guiscard, which included the gift of a castle and his daughter's hand in marriage.
8.
Robert Guiscard therefore returned to Drogo's court, and he asked his brother to grant him a fief.
9.
Drogo, who had just finished a military campaign in Calabria, granted him command of the fortress of Scribla, but Robert Guiscard, dissatisfied, transferred to the castle of San Marco Argentano.
10.
Robert Guiscard 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.
11.
When Humphrey died in 1057, Robert Guiscard succeeded him as Count of Apulia and Calabria, skipping over his elder half-brother Geoffrey in the line of succession.
12.
In return for his sister's hand in marriage, Gisulf demanded that Robert Guiscard destroyed two castles which belonged to his brother William, because they stood on Gisulf's territory.
13.
Therefore, in the Treaty of Melfi of 1059, Robert Guiscard swore fealty to Pope Nicholas II.
14.
Robert Guiscard briefly returned to Apulia to remove the Byzantine garrisons from Taranto and Brindisi, before returning in Calabria, where after a long and arduous siege, he conquered Reggio.
15.
In 1063 Robert Guiscard left for Apulia to spend Christmas with Sikelgaita, leaving behind the fort of San Marco d'Alunzio.
16.
Robert Guiscard's campsite was however infested with tarantulas, and the expedition was abandoned.
17.
Robert Guiscard besieged the city by land and water for four years, until in 1071 the people decided to surrender; he would later repair the damages done by the siege.
18.
The Byzantines were finally chased off the Italian peninsula, and Robert Guiscard now focused his attention on the various Lombard independent realms in southern Italy.
19.
Robert Guiscard firstly attacked the Principality of Salerno, held by his brother in law Gisulf II.
20.
Robert Guiscard returned to the Balkans and reoccupied Corfu and Cephalonia, with the help of Ragusa and other dalmatian cities under the rule of king Demetrius Zvonimir.
21.
Robert Guiscard's remains were brought back to Italy, and he was buried in the Hauteville family mausoleum, the Abbey of Santissima Trinita in Venosa.
22.
Robert Guiscard instead got some land around the city of Taranto.
23.
Robert Guiscard laid the foundation of the Salerno Cathedral and of a Norman monastery at Sant'Eufemia Lamezia in Calabria.
24.
Robert Guiscard received his investment with Sicily at the hands of Pope Nicholas II, who feared the opposition of the Holy Roman Emperor to the Papal reforms more.
25.
Robert 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.
26.
In Crusader Kings III, Robert Guiscard is represented as one of the recommended starting characters, being potrayed the Duke of Apulia.
27.
Robert Guiscard starts with his own epithet, Robert "the Fox".