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Normans

historical ethnical group of Northwestern Europe

24 dated entries naming Normans, drawn from 24 separate years between 945 CE and 1185 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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10th century

  • 945Summer – King Louis IV ("d'Outremer") is captured by the Normans and handed over to Hugh the Great. In return for the release of Louis, Laon surrenders to him in compensation.source

11th century

  • 1016Melus of Bari makes a second attempt against Byzantine-held Southern Italy. To support his cause, he hires Norman mercenaries, unwittingly triggering the rise of Norman rule over southern Italy.source
  • 1017Summer – Melus of Bari, a Lombard nobleman, revolts and is supported by Norman mercenaries at Capua. He marches into Apulia to catch the Byzantine army off-guard. Melus defeats the Byzantines on the banks of the Fortore River and ravages the territory in Apulia.source
  • 1018October – Battle of Cannae: The Lombard adventurer Melus of Bari and his Norman mercenaries are decisively defeated by the Byzantine army, led by the Catepan Basil Boioannes.source
  • 1027Duke Sergius IV of Naples donates the County of Aversa to a band of Norman mercenaries led by Rainulf Drengot, who support him in the war with Capua.source
  • 1029Rainulf Drengot, head of a mercenary band of Norman knights, is approached by Duke John V of Gaeta and is persuaded to change sides. With Norman help, Duke Sergius IV recovers Naples from Capuan occupation.source
  • 1051Summer – Drogo of Hauteville, count of Apulia and Calabria, meets Pope Leo IX in southern Italy – who has been sent by Emperor Henry III (the Black) to re-establish the "freedom of the Catholic Church". Drogo is forced to promise Pope Leo to stop the Normans from pillaging the Lombard countryside. On his way back (August 10), Drogo is assassinated near Bovino by a Byzantine conspiracy.source
  • 1054Battle of Mortemer: The Normans, led by Duke William the Conqueror, defeat a French army (near Mortemer), as it is caught pillaging and plundering. King Henry I of France withdraws his main army from the Duchy of Normandy as a result. Guy I, Count of Ponthieu, is captured during the course of the battle.source
  • 1068Norman forces under Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger I invade Sicily. Muslim ruler Ayyub ibn Tamim's forces oppose them. The Normans and the Muslim army meet at the Battle of Misilmeri. The Norman forces defeat the Muslim army. Ayyub ibn Tamim flees from Sicily. The Norman conquest of the island continues to expand.source
  • 1072January 10 – The Normans under Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger I ("Boso") conquer Palermo (after a one year siege). Roger receives the keys of the city, and Robert invests him with the title of Count of Sicily. The Emirate of Sicily rules only the southern part of the island, with Syracuse as the capital (until 1091).source
  • 1074February 7 – Battle of Montesarchio: Prince Pandulf IV, co-ruler of Benevento, is killed while fighting the Normans in southern Italy.source
  • 1081October 18 – Battle of Dyrrhachium: After taking the island of Corfu, Robert Guiscard advances to Dyrrhachium (modern-day Durrës), and lays siege to the city. Alexios I Komnenos attempts to defend Illyria from the Normans (the first recorded mention of Albania), but is defeated by Guiscard, outside Dyrrhachium, the Byzantine capital city of Illyria.source
  • 1082Spring – The Normans under Duke Robert Guiscard take Dyrrhachium (modern-day Durrës) in Illyria and advance inland, capturing most of Macedonia and Thessaly. Robert is forced to leave Greece to deal with an uprising in Italy. He leaves his son Bohemond in charge of the army, who lays siege to the city of Larissa. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos mobilizes a new army, and with the support of 7,000 Seljuk Turks he clears Thessaly from the Normans.source
  • 1091February – Norman conquest of Sicily: The Normans conquer Noto and complete the 30-year-long conquest of Sicily from the Moorish rulers. Duke Roger Borsa (a son of Robert Guiscard) surrenders his share in the castles of Calabria, and receives his inheritance of Palermo. He grants charters to various towns and encourages urban planning in Apulia and Calabria.source
  • 1093The Normans under Lord Robert Fitzhamon continue their occupation of southern Wales with Pembroke Castle being constructed by Arnulf de Montgomery.source

12th century

  • 1114As part of the Norman expansion southward, Count Routrou II enters the service of King Alfonso I (the Battler) of Aragon.source
  • 1118Pope Gelasius II grants the status of Crusade to the Christian effort in the Ebro Valley, attracting numerous Gascon, Occitan and Norman knights.source
  • 1122The Almoravid fleet attacks Sicily to suppress the Italo-Norman raiders. The same year the Muslim population of Malta rebels against the Normans.source
  • 1132July 24 – Battle of Nocera: Rebel Normans under Count Ranulf II defeat the Sicilian forces, led by King Roger II. Seven hundred knights are captured, and Roger is forced to retreat to Salerno.source
  • 1133July 17 – Battle of Fraga: The Castellan troops led by King Alfonso I (the Battler) defeat the Almoravid army, thanks to a timely intervention of a Norman Crusader army from Tarragona, led by Robert Bordet.source
  • 1149Spring – Emperor Manuel I Komnenos recovers Corfu with the help of the Venetians, who defeat the Sicilian fleet. During the three-month siege, Byzantine admiral Stephen Kontostephanos is killed by a stone thrown by a catapult. Manuel prepares an offensive against the Normans; King Roger II sends a fleet (some 40 ships) under George of Antioch, to pillage the suburbs of Constantinople.source
  • 1159Tunis is reconquered from the Normans, by the Almohad caliphs.source
  • 1171The successors of Robert Bordet leave Catalonia for Mallorca, marking the end of the attempts to create a Norman principality in Iberia.source
  • 1185November 7 – Battle of Demetritzes: A reinforced Byzantine army under Alexios Branas decisively defeats William II, ending his invasion of the Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki is recaptured, and the Normans are pushed back to Italy. Many Norman ships are lost to storms.source

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