Normans in Italy // Wars of the Lombards & Byzantines (1008-1053)

are you ready to start your new online venture or creative endeavor make it happen with Squarespace the all-in-one platform to build an online presence and follow your dream with more on that at the end of the video during the first half of the 11th century southern Italy was a tinderbox just waiting to go off in the peninsula itself no less than three independent lombard stateless vied for power with their Byzantine Eastern Roman neighbors leftovers from the days of Justinian these Latin speaking descendants of Germanic invaders had their own unique Germanic laws and increasingly looked to the Pope in Rome for guidance often enticing the neighboring Lombard Imperial subjects of the Byzantines into rebellion the first state to arise had been benevento which eventually splintered into two states when Salerno seized its independence through fire and blood in the 9th century next was Capua which became independent once more towards the end of the millennium [Music] just to the north the papacy in Rome ever attempted to mediate in matters whilst fighting its own battles against the ever-present German Kingdom to the north yet another continent spanning superpower seeking to further its own ends in the region finally to the South in Sicily an independent Islamic Emirate had thrived for more than a century after seizing the island from Roman rule now they too sought to extend their own power into the mainland it was into this political maelstrom of vying factions and ambitious strong men but in 1009 Millis a lombard nobleman from the apulian town of bari then the capital of the Byzantine territories of southern Italy rose up in open revolt against his overlords in an attempt to throw off Constantinople Imperial yoke and lead his countrymen to freedom though the lombards had been allowed a certain degree of autonomy within the empire the cultural divide between them and their Greek speaking neighbors was simply too much at times the Byzantines looked to the patriarch in Constantinople for religious guidance whereas the lumbars looked to the Pope in Rome it didn't take long for Bari the provincial capital to fall truth be told the imperial administrators of the empire were few and far between and besides Italy had been a secure region for as long as anyone could remember the rebellion came as a complete surprise after Bari men from all over the region flocked to me lasses course the rebels took a Scali and Troya the next year whilst continuing to swell their numbers with more and more disaffected Lombards seeking their independence from the Empire behind the scenes another group of power brokers were likely involved to the independent lombard princes of salerno Capua and Benevento who sought to undermine Imperial rule on their borders in order to extend their own power they were all too happy to allow another to take the brunt of any potential backlash whilst enjoying the benefits if he was to succeed so should it been for the lombards for centuries [Music] originally a Germanic tribe from beyond the Rhine the lombards had arrived into Western Europe later than the more famous Goths vandals and Huns during the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the mid 6th century a hundred years after their service in the armies of Attila the lumbars then known as long beards had been utilized by the eastern Romans under Justinian to wrest back control of Italy from the ostrogothic kingdom which had taken hold there in reality a much more romanized group than the lumbars the eastern Romans perhaps operating out of spite or sheer naivety didn't realize just what they had unleashed soon enough the Lombards under their ruler al Bowen a pagan warlord partial to taking Skull cups of his enemies after raising much of the peninsula and thus completing the desolation of Italy held together by the Ostrogoths instead of ceding their new lands to the eastern Romans seized the opportunity to take over the peninsula for themselves though areas of Roman rule did survive for the most part the Lombards ruled Italy for several centuries under a series of disparate dynasties and kingdoms these rose and fell over the years never quite achieving the unity enjoyed by their Frankish neighbors to the north or the Visigoths of Spain yet the centuries did change the lumbars who gradually adopted the language of the Romans and inherited many of their institutions and surviving infrastructure by the late 8th century however all this was to change with the northern lombard kingdom being conquered entirely by the great King Charlemagne and added to his ever-growing Empire from then on the South remained divided between independent lombard stateless and eastern roman imperial holdings along the coasts areas which had never been conquered by the turn of the millennium the wants powerful principality of benevento had fallen on hard times splintering into three independent states it was likely Milla's his ambition to restore what he saw as the glory days of his ancestors to force out the enemies he likely saw as foreign oppressors unfortunately for the lombards however by the early 11th century the soldier emperor basel ii the boulder slayer had been on the imperial throne for over three decades and he just so happened to be one of the greatest byzantine rulers of all time the early 11th century was a period of revival for the empire since the mid 10th century a series of strong and militaristic generals had come to power to oversee the greatest territorial expansion since the time of Justinian now that the fragmenting Abbasid Caliphate was no longer a threat and the new Shia Islamic power of the Fatimids were themselves allied to Byzantium for the time being the empire had little to fear Basile spent close to three decades completely subjugating the primary threat to his power bulgaria thus ending the first bulgarian empire a mainstay in eastern europe for over 300 years and now his sights were firmly set upon the upstart lombard noblemen seeking to undermine the authority of his office in 1011 Basel sent his subordinate the Cata pan of Italy Basel mezodon at ease along with a vast imperial army to put down the rebels these were men blooded from three decades of brutal conflict career soldiers and they made light work of the Lombard rebels on the 11th of June 10 11 not long after the Imperial fleet arrived on the apulian coastline Bari fell and the rebellion fell apart soon afterwards maelys managed to escape fleeing to the protection of Prince Guillaume are the 3rd of Salerno a Lombard Lord with ties to the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire to the north Basel couldn't afford to anger the Germans whilst the new gains of the empire were being consolidated but he did manage to capture maelys his wife and children and took them to Constantinople as prisoners maelys would never see them again though his son our gyrus would still have a part to play miel us along with a handful of followers probably including his brother-in-law datas continued their struggle against the Byzantines attempting to rouse up underlying Lombard resentments throughout Italy into action according to the later chronicler William of Apulia it was in 1016 that MELAS came across a band of northern pilgrims at the famous shrine of Saint Michel at the imposing holy mountain of Monte Gargano in return for payment Millis persuaded some of these men to join his course and others carried word of the offer back to their homeland these men were Normans and little did Miele snow but this act would inadvertently seal the fate of the Lombard question once and for all ensuring that not only would a unified Lombard state never exist again but also the already independent Lombard principalities would be stamped out of existence - and it wouldn't be either of the two empires that would land the killing blow [Music] by 10:17 now bolstered by contingents of norman adventurous and mercenaries led by the drengo brothers an ambitious band of petty lords recently exiled from their homeland along with ambitious Lombard soldiers Millis launched a new rebellion he quickly marched on Apulia and at first successfully took the Byzantines by surprise claiming large swathe of land and rousing up yet more popular support for the course but 1018 however at the Second Battle of cannae fought at the same location as the famous Roman defeat by Hannibal some 1,200 years earlier the rebel army was wiped out almost to a man melis managed to flee the field as did one of the Norman lieutenant's Raynald Ranga the others including most of his brothers weren't so lucky being wiped out Mele us again fled north this time to seek refuge with the holy roman emperor henry ii leaving his newfound norman allies to their own devices drengo with just the handful of men he had left fled to the mountainous Campania region where eventually he managed to seize a minor regional strongholds from some ving local Nobles and began seeking a new patron whilst all the while terrorizing the local peasantry into providing him and his men with food and supplies from this point onwards bands of opportunistic Norman's would increasingly integrate themselves into the political structure of the south of Italy and in time subvert the entire lombard independence movement to a Norman led one [Music] in 10 22 years after the Battle of can a while at the court of the Emperor Milas died a broken man just as his brother-in-law datas was captured by the new Byzantine cat a pan of Italy basil boy Yanni's and his new ally later known as the wolf of the Mezzogiorno hand off the 4th Prince of Capua at the time ruling in conjunction with his cousin though before long becoming a powerhouse in his own right a master of the shifting alliances and Machiavellian politicking of southern Italy at this time over the course of his career Pandolph would be Prince of Capua on no less than three separate occasions for a man like pandulph any silly notions of a unified lombard state meant little he was an ambitious realist and the Byzantines were obviously the most powerful force in the region however the shrewd ruler is going over to them coincided with all of the other Lombard princes switching their loyalties from the Holy Roman Empire to the Byzantines - there was also another group that benefited from Handel's politicking a group ever in need of well-paying patrons and happy to serve any of the different sides involved the Normans on the 15th of June 10 20 on pandal and Basil's orders datas the last hope of the lombard independence movement was tied up in a sack on the Italian coastline along with him was thrown a monkey a rooster and a snake the sack was then tossed into the sea [Music] an excessively harsh execution and throw back to ancient Roman traditions datas is grisly execution prompted an immediate response from the holy roman empire to the north ever looking for an excuse to involve itself in the message iana and a huge army soon marched south to fight the Byzantines now supported by norman mercenaries ever making themselves indispensable to both sides of any potential conflict the German detachment under pilgrim the Archbishop of Cologne marched down the Turanian coastline and besieged the city of Capua hesitant to fight the Germans who were equally unwilling to do the same Pandolph was instead seized as a scapegoat and taken before the Emperor Henry the second Pandolf was very nearly executed before being saved at the last minute by pilgrim and instead thrown into a dungeon before being released two years later after Henry's death and the installment of a new German leader which prompted a new strategy of reconciliation nearly two decades passed before me loves his son our gyrus was finally released from his captivity in Constantinople much had changed in Italy since he had been carried off from his homeland as a boy resentment towards the Byzantines was still strong amongst their Lombard subjects as well as the independent Lombard States now supported by increasingly powerful bands of militaristic Normans who had made it their business to be integral to the various power struggles playing out unfortunately for any independent minded lombards of southern Italy each one of their leaders had their own ambitions and aims which led them to rarely band together for a common course more often than not fighting amongst themselves just to add further to the confusing mesh of magnets in the Messier giorno our gyrus had spent much of his life in Constantinople not in a prison cell but as a wealthy Imperial citizen for all intents and purposes he was now a Roman rather than returning back to Italy as his father's son he returned as a Byzantine general along with a vast army comprising of Greeks Varangian Guardsmen unto the norwegian prince Harald Hardrada fierce Roose Mariners from the river lands of Eastern Europe lombards pressed into service and of course Normans all under the overall command of the famed General George Maney a case the greatest Byzantine commander of his generation [Music] the destination of this multinational invasion force was the island of Sicily home to an Islamic Emirate for close to two centuries the overall aim of the campaign was to dislodge the Muslim leadership entirely and re-establish Imperial control once and for all [Music] mani a case was the closest thing to a celebrity that early 11th century Byzantium had during a time of relative inactivity following the overwhelming success of basil the vulgar Slayer mani a case was a dashing giant of a man who led from the front fighting in the vanguard alongside his men he'd made a name for himself in the early 1030 s during an unsuccessful Imperial attack on Aleppo despite the defeat of the main army mani a case had led a splinter attack largely on his own volition successfully capturing the town of Odessa from the Arabs and earning himself an immediate promotion in the process since that time his stature had only grown and now he was ready for his most ambitious project yet the famed soldier Emperor no Sepphoris focus had undertaken a similar conquest of Crete just less than a century earlier which had spring bolted him to the imperial throne there were many in the Empire who saw mani a case is attempting to do the same the new reigning family in the Capitol path Laconia --nz were hardly legitimate themselves simply being the most crafty of the bunch in playing the political game following Basil's death and the decline of the Macedonian dynasty yet nonetheless despite high hopes and some initial successes the differences between the vast coalition were simply too much to bear and before long the various leaders of the campaign turned on each other the story recorded by Byzantine sources goes that money a case a brilliant yet hot-headed tactician had asked his Admiral Stephen to halt the retreat of a force of Arabs after he defeated them in a surprise battle and thus win a decisive victory when Stephen failed to do so unwittingly allowing the Arabs to escape to their ships mani a case on the back of his mighty war horse rode up to the unfortunate man berated him with insults before publicly whipping him his incompetence for all to see in doing this mani a case had made a grave error for Stephen was married to the Emperor's sister and was thus an inner member of the path laconian clan who now held sway in the capital similar stories abound it of maniac ease humiliating Ardoin the leader of the lombard detachment which had been sent by prince queimada the fourth of salerno according to the norman chronicler amethyst of Monte Cassino when Ardoin refused to surrender a captured horse to the Byzantine general mani a case had him stripped and beaten this was an act which apparently caused Ardoin and his Norman allies to finally desert the Byzantines once and for though this could easily be an excuse for a rebellion that was already in the works [Music] thus despite winning all of the engagements he fought in mani a case was soon recalled by the Emperor Michael the 4th to answer for his crimes ultimately whether he had been planning to in the first place or not mani a case would launch an ultimately unsuccessful attempt on the imperial throne dying in battle as he fought on the front line with his man although the Arabs soon took the island of Sicily back Manea cases successes they're ultimately inspired the Normans to invade for themselves just a few decades later in the interim period and with the backdrop of Manea cases attempt on the imperial throne a full-scale Lombard revolt again broke out once more supported by even more contingents of Normans in particular the current eldest Holtville brother active in the region like the drain goes before them and no doubt other families the Haute fills a brood of relatively obscure landless Knights adop rooted themselves from Normandy to start new lives in the south by 1041 their leader was the eldest surviving brother William iron armed named face supposedly defeating the Emir of Syracuse in single combats during the Imperial campaign in Sicily [Music] the Lombard rebels led in battled by iron arm once several victories most notably at all event oh and Monte migliori the first time Norman's had faced Byzantines since kanae in 1018 with a decisively different result in September 1041 the rebels even defeated the new Byzantine Catalan EXOR Gustus the son of the great basil boy Arnie's taking him captive to be ransomed back to the Empire where our niece was taken to then event Oh whose Prince was at the time aligned with the rebels led now by a t'l the princes brother at about the same time however the Prince of Salerno gree Omar the fourth allegedly began to draw the Normans under his banner with his own promises but February 1042 probably feeling abandoned and perhaps bribed by the Byzantines antonov negotiated the ransom of eggs or Gustus and then fled with the ransom money to Byzantine territory [Music] it is at this point in the story that a curious event happens in February 1042 after the original leader of the rebellion at a North brother of Prince Pandolf the third of Benevento defectives to the Byzantines he was replaced as leader by our gyrus the son of the famed hero Milla sabari despite having lived most of his life as a Roman apparently switched his allegiances to become an instant figurehead of the rebellion in reality however by this time the rebellion seems to have already taken on a distinctly Norman character by the time our gyrus took command the Normans were already making the military decisions entirely on their own either realising the larger threats to his people or his greed getting the better of him the truth depending on which sources you read before long it was our gyrus who accepted titles and money from the Byzantines and was accepted back into the Imperial fold thus throwing the rebellion into confusion once more it has been suggested by some historians that our gyrus had never really been a supporter of the Lombard rebellion he's going over being rather a result of Byzantine entry much like the Bulgarian nobleman Ellucian during their rebellion and the Balkans which took place in the same era [Music] perhaps realizing the greater of two evils our gyrus continued to try and counter the emergence of the Norman Menace in Italy going on to fight them for the Byzantines for the next sixteen years under the title Duke of Italy Calabria Sicily and puff Laconia though in reality the damage was already done Normans now fought on their behalf of almost every leader in the region and had even been legitimized and given lands by various Lombard Nobles seeking to keep their own titles against their neighbors such as Pandolf the forth of Capua who remained allied to the Normans for much of his life finally seeing the city of Capua taken over by the Normans after his death [Music] in 1053 an independent Norman force under Richard drengo the nephew of the reign of that at once fought alongside male us back in 1018 and a rising star Robert Holtville known as geese guard or the crafty the leading Holtville brother after the death of the other contenders defeated a coalition of almost every other group in southern Italy at the Battle of Civitas our gyrus commanded the Byzantine detachment during that battle but he seems to have missed the actual combat in the aftermath of Civet at it became overwhelmingly clear that the Normans were now the paramount power in southern Italy rather than an independent Lombard Kingdom in the south a Norman one had been born this video is brought to you by Squarespace from websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build an online presence and follow your dreams whether it's podcasting creative writing photography or an online shop whatever it is that you do creatively in your life you can make it more connected 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Channel: History Time

Views: 191,628

Keywords: iMovie, normans, italy normans, normans in italy, normans in spain, norman history, byzantine history, byzantium history, robert guiscard, melus of bari, melo of bari, dattus, melus, richard drngot, richard drengot, rainulf drengot

Id: CGo7kcgb9Qc

Length: 31min 1sec (1861 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2019