Year 1063 (MLXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Roger I, nicknamed Roger Bosso and The Great Count, was a Norman nobleman who became the first Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was a member of the House of Hauteville, and his descendants in the male line continued to rule Sicily down to 1194.
Adelaide del Vasto was countess of Sicily as the third spouse of Roger I of Sicily, and Queen consort of Jerusalem by marriage to Baldwin I of Jerusalem. She served as regent of Sicily during the minority of her son Roger II of Sicily from 1101 until 1112.
Roger Borsa was the Norman Duke of Apulia and Calabria and effective ruler of southern Italy from 1085 until his death.
Serlo I of Hauteville was a son of Tancred of Hauteville by his first wife, Muriella, probably the youngest, though some sources call him the eldest. Born before 1010, he was the eldest son of Tancred's to remain in Normandy. After a dispute with a neighbour, whom he killed over an insult, Serlo was exiled for three years. Around 1041, his father died and he inherited the small fief of Hauteville in the Cotentin and the sirery of Pirou through his wife. He was regarded, as were his brothers, as an exceptional warrior.
GaufredoMalaterra was an eleventh-century Benedictine monk and historian, possibly of Norman origin. He travelled to the southern Italian peninsula, passing some time in Apulia before entering the monastery of Sant'Agata at Catania, on the isle of Sicily. Malaterra indicates that, prior to his arrival in Catania, he had spent an undefined period away from monastic life, in the worldly service of "Martha".
Jordan of Hauteville was the eldest son and bastard of Roger I of Sicily. A fighter, he took part, from an early age, in the conquests of his father in Sicily.
Alexander of Telese was an Italian chronicler and historian, and the abbot of San Salvatore, near Telese, in southern Italy from before 1127 to before November 1143.
Geoffrey the Elder was an Italo-Norman nobleman. A nephew of Robert Guiscard through one of his sisters, he was the count of Conversano from 1072 and the lord of Brindisi and Nardò from 1070, until his death.
Geoffrey or Godfrey was the second eldest son of Roger I of Sicily. He was probably a bastard, like his elder brother Jordan, but he may have been a legitimate son by either Judith of Évreux or Eremburga of Mortain. Either way, he stood no chance of inheriting, for he had leprosy, or some similar disease. He never married, but was engaged to a daughter of Boniface del Vasto.
Robert I of Bassunvilla was a Norman baron from Molise. His family originated in Vassonville, near Dieppe.
Boniface del Vasto was the margrave of Savona and Western Liguria from 1084 to c.1130. He was the son and successor of Otto and of Bertha, daughter of Ulric Manfred II of Turin. Boniface was a member of the Aleramici dynasty.
Henry del Vasto, died before 1141 was a son of Manfred del Vasto, margrave of Western Liguria, and brother of Adelaide, countess of Sicily (1089–1117) and Jerusalem (1112–1117) and of Boniface, margrave of Savona and Western Liguria.
The Hauteville was a Norman family originally of seigneurial rank from the Cotentin. The Hautevilles rose to prominence through their part in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. By 1130, one of their members, Roger II, was made the first King of Sicily. His male-line descendants ruled Sicily until 1194. Some Italian Hautevilles took part in the First Crusade and the founding of the Principality of Antioch (1098).
Ingelmarius was a Norman knight of humble origins who served Roger I, the count of Sicily. In reward for his good service to Roger, Ingelmarius was given the hand of the widow of Roger's nephew Serlo II of Hauteville, the lady Altruda of Boiano. In addition to giving Ingelmarius control of the vast conquests and rights of Altruda's first husband, the marriage also raised Ingelmarius up socially into the nobility.
Cerami is a comune in Sicily, southern Italy, part of the Province of Enna. The town itself is perched on a mountaintop 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level. A river also named Cerami flows through this area.
Guigues the Old, called Guigues III, was a Count of Albon from 1079, when the County of Vienne, then in the possession of the Archdiocese of Vienne, was divided between him and Humbert I of Savoy, who received Maurienne.
The noble House of the Sarlo descends directly from Serlo I of Hauteville, son of Tancred de Hauteville and his first wife Muriella. Sarlo the first had a son from his marriage with the daughter of the Lord of Pirou also called Sarlo. Sarlo II went in the Mezzogiorno with his uncles to seek fortune.
The Battle of Cerami was fought in June 1063 and was one of the most significant battles in the Norman conquest of Sicily, 1060–1091. The battle was fought between a Norman expeditionary force and a Muslim alliance of Sicilian and Zirid troops. The Normans fought under the command of Roger de Hauteville, the youngest son of Tancred of Hauteville and brother of Robert Guiscard. The Muslim alliance consisted of the native Sicilian Muslims under the Kalbid ruling class of Palermo, led by Ibn al-Hawas, and Zirid reinforcements from North Africa led by the two princes, Ayyub and 'Ali. The battle was a resounding Norman victory that utterly routed the opposing force, causing divisions amongst the Muslim aristocracy which ultimately paved the way for the eventual capture of the Sicilian capital, Palermo, by the Normans and subsequently the rest of the island.
Robert, Count of Eu and Lord of Hastings, son of William I, Count of Eu, and his wife Lesceline. Count of Eu and Lord of Hastings.
