Humphrey of Hauteville | |
|---|---|
Statue of Humphrey outside Coutances Cathedral | |
| Count of Apulia and Calabria | |
| Reign | 10 August 1051 - August 1057 |
| Predecessor | Drogo |
| Successor | Robert Guiscard |
| Noble family | Hauteville |
| Spouse(s) | Gaitelgrima of Sorrento |
| Issue | Geoffrey Joscelin Abelard Herman |
| Father | Tancred |
| Mother | Muriella |
Humphrey of Hauteville (died August 1057), also nicknamed Abelard, [1] was the third Norman Count of Apulia. He succeeded his brother Drogo.
Humphrey was a son of Tancred of Hauteville by his first wife Muriella. Goffredo Malaterra records him as being the third son, after William Iron Arm and Drogo, while Romuald Guarna records him as being the fifth, coming after Serlo, Geoffrey, Drogo and William. Regardless, it is unlikely anyway that Humphrey was older than Serlo, as Serlo stayed in Normandy to inherit their father’s possessions, while Humphrey journeyed to Southern Italy. [2] [3] [4]
Since Tancred had many sons, and his possessions weren’t enough to satisfy all of them, Humphrey and many of his brothers were soon forced to seek fortune elsewhere. [5]
Goffredo Malaterra and Amatus of Montecassino record that Humphrey journeyed to Southern Italy with his brothers William Iron Arm and Drogo, around 1035/7, to strengthen the ranks of Rainulf Drengot, Count of Aversa. Chalandon, however, believes that he followed his brothers years later, between 1043 and 1045, as he is not recorded among the Normans who elected William Iron Arm in 1042. [1] [4] [5]
Anyway, in 1042, Humphrey's brother William was elected Count of Apulia. In 1046 he was succeeded by Drogo, whom, at the end of the same year, granted Humphrey the lordship of Lavello. In 1048, during some hostilities between Normans and Byzantines, Humphrey also conquered Troia and Vaccarizza, and he helped his young half-brother Robert Guiscard, who had just arrived in Southern Italy, to settle down. [1] [4]
His reign began amid the troubles which had ended his brother's. Humphrey vigorously punished the instigators of his brother's assassination, especially the principal murderer. Many Norman knights were in rebellion and pillaging papal lands. Guaimar IV of Salerno supported Humphrey's succession, but he was soon assassinated. Pope Leo IX organised a coalition against the Normans and marched south. The pope's forces and those of the Normans fought the Battle of Civitate near Civitate sul Fortore on 18 June 1053. Humphrey led the armies of the Hautevilles (assisted by his younger half-brother Robert Guiscard) and Drengots (assisted by Richard Drengot) against the combined forces of the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. The Normans destroyed the papal army and captured the pope, whom they imprisoned in Benevento, which they had been authorised by the emperor to capture in 1047. They finally released him on 12 March 1054. Leo died soon after. In 1053, Humphrey also received his three brothers, Geoffrey and their half-brothers Mauger and a younger William, on their arrival in Italy. He granted Mauger the Capitanate and William the Principate.
In the aftermath of Civitate, the Normans under Humphrey took advantage of the severely weakened papacy to further their conquest. He took Oria, Nardò, and Lecce by the end of 1055. Robert Guiscard, the hero of Civitate, meanwhile conquered Minervino Murge, Otranto, and Gallipoli, before Humphrey sent him back to Calabria in fear of his growing power and influence. Upon his death in 1057 (or 1056 according to some sources), Humphrey was succeeded as count by Robert. Humphrey had given Guiscard the guardianship of his young sons, but Guiscard confiscated their inheritance.
Humphrey married Gaitelgrima, daughter of Guaimar III, whom Amatus of Montecassino calls a sister of the Duke of Sorrento. [3] It is often stated that this Gaitelgrima was the same as Gaitelgrima of Salerno, the widow of his brother Drogo; however, this is impossible. [6] [7] Humphrey and Gaitelgrima had four sons:
We also know that they had a daughter, as Amatus of Montecassino records that Robert Guiscard pursued "Abelard and Gradilon, the husband of his sister" after the former's rebellion in 1078.
Robert Guiscard, also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Norman adventurer remembered for his conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century.
The Battle of Civitate was fought on 18 June 1053 in southern Italy, between the Normans, led by the Count of Apulia Humphrey of Hauteville, and a Swabian-Italian-Lombard army, organised by Pope Leo IX and led on the battlefield by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine, and Rudolf, Prince of Benevento. The Norman victory over the allied papal army marked the climax of a conflict between the Norman mercenaries who came to southern Italy in the eleventh century, the de Hauteville family, and the local Lombard princes. By 1059 the Normans would create an alliance with the papacy, which included a formal recognition by Pope Nicholas II of the Norman conquest in south Italy, investing Robert Guiscard as Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and Count of Sicily.
William of Hauteville, better known with his nickname, William Iron Arm, was a Norman military leader and the first Count of Apulia. He initiated the series of fortunes of the House of Hauteville.
Drogo of Hauteville was the second Norman Count of Apulia. He led the Normans of Southern Italy after the death of his brother, William Iron Arm.
Guaimar IV was Prince of Salerno (1027–1052), Duke of Amalfi (1039–1052), Duke of Gaeta (1040–1041), and Prince of Capua (1038–1047) in Southern Italy over the period from 1027 to 1052. He was an important figure in the final phase of Byzantine authority in the Mezzogiorno and the commencement of Norman power. He was, according to Amatus of Montecassino, "more courageous than his father, more generous and more courteous; indeed he possessed all the qualities a layman should have—except that he took an excessive delight in women."
Guaimar III was the Lombard prince of Salerno from around 994 to his death. Under his reign, Salerno entered an era of great splendour. Opulenta Salernum was the inscription on his coins. He made Amalfi, Gaeta and Sorrento his vassals and annexed much of Byzantine Apulia and Calabria.
Amatus of Montecassino, was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Montecassino who is best known for his historical chronicles of his era. His History of the Normans, is one of three principle primary sources for the Norman Conquest of southern Italy--the other two being the histories of William of Apulia and Geoffrey Malaterra. Amatus describes the Normans from the perspective of his abbey, one of the most important religious and cultural centers in Italy at the time. His history is the earliest extant account of the Norman sieges of Bari and Salerno, their conquest of Sicily, and the careers of both Robert Guiscard and Richard Drengot, as well as the Gregorian Reforms seen from the papal point of view.
Richard Drengot was the count of Aversa (1049–1078), prince of Capua and duke of Gaeta (1064–1078).
Gisulf II was the last Lombard prince of Salerno (1052–1077).
Gaitelgrima is a Lombard feminine name.
Geoffrey of Hauteville was a Norman military leader and Count of the Capitanate, son of Tancred of Hauteville by his first wife Muriella.
William of Hauteville was one of the younger sons of Tancred of Hauteville by his second wife Fressenda. He is usually called Willermus instead of Wilelmus in Latin annals and so is often called Guillerm instead of Guillaume in French.
Peter I, also known as Petronius, was the first Norman count of Trani. He was one of the most prominent of the twelve leaders of the Norman mercenaries serving Guaimar IV of Salerno. Though it had not yet been conquered from the Byzantine Empire, Peter received Trani in the Normans' division of Apulia made at Melfi in 1042. In that same division his brother Walter received Civitate.
The House of Hauteville was a Norman family, originally of petty lords, from the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy.
The Drengots were a Norman family of mercenaries, one of the first to head to Southern Italy to fight in the service of the Lombards. They became the most prominent family after the Hautevilles.
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1194, involving many battles and independent conquerors.
The County of Monte Sant'Angelo or Gargano was a large Norman county in southern Italy, covering the Gargano Peninsula and much of the later Province of Foggia. Its comital seat was Monte Sant'Angelo.
Peter II was the third Italo-Norman count of Trani. He was the youngest of three sons of Peter I; his elder brothers were Amico and Geoffrey.
The County of Apulia and Calabria, later the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria, was a Norman state founded by William of Hauteville in 1043, composed of the territories of Gargano, Capitanata, Apulia, Vulture, and most of Campania. It became a duchy when Robert Guiscard was raised to the rank of duke by Pope Nicholas II in 1059.
Joscelin was a Norman count of Molfetta on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy. He rejected the leadership of Duke Robert Guiscard and rebelled, perhaps as early as 1064, certainly by 1067. Defeated, he went over the Byzantines in 1068.
