Robert of Selby (or Salebia) (died 1152) was an Englishman, a courtier of Roger II and chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily. [1] It is likely that his name indicates that he was from Selby in Yorkshire. He probably journeyed to Sicily about 1130. In his train was Thomas Brun.
In 1137, he was appointed governor of Campania shortly before Salerno, the capital of Campania, was besieged by Count Ranulf of Alife, Duke Henry the Proud, and Prince Robert II of Capua, with the troops of the Emperor Lothair II. Robert stayed in Salerno to defend the city while Roger was in the island capital Palermo. With the cause hopeless, Robert advised the city to surrender and beg imperial protection to prevent a sack by the eager Pisans. The citizens did so and Robert of Selby left to organise the defence of the rest of the province.
In 1143, when Pope Innocent II refused to recognise the Treaty of Mignano, Robert of Selby marched on papal Benevento. The Beneventans argued that their royal charter was being violated, whereupon Robert entered the palace and the charter was never seen again.
In Summer 1144, Pope Lucius II was barred from Rome by the senatores and the patricius Giordano Pierleoni. He failed in his negotiations with Roger at Ceprano. Robert of Selby led expeditions against the ill-defended Papal States. Lucius' successor, Pope Eugene III, was invited back after the deposition of Giordano, but forced out again in March 1146. Late in 1149, Robert of Selby led him back into the Lateran with a Sicilian troop.
Robert of Selby probably acted as a sort of guardian for the young duke of Apulia, Roger, the son of Roger II. According to John of Hexham, writing in 1147, Robert was "the most influential of the King's friends, a man of great wealth and loaded with honours." Likewise, in his Policraticus , VII.19, John of Salisbury calls him "an able administrator . . . feared by all because of his influence with the Prince, and respected for the elegance of his life . . ." A modern opinion is that of John Julius Norwich: "Robert's administrative methods were as unorthodox as his way of life. He emerges as a far more cheerful and extrovert character than his master. . ." An incident in the Policraticus, records Robert negotiating three large bribes from three candidates for the vacant see of Avella —and promptly disclosing the simony to an assembly of bishops, who elected a worthy abbot instead. Robert collected the bribes nevertheless.
Pope Lucius II, born Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1144 to his death in 1145. His pontificate was notable for the unrest in Rome associated with the Commune of Rome and its attempts to wrest control of the city from the papacy. He supported Empress Matilda's claim to England in the Anarchy, and had a tense relationship with King Roger II of Sicily.
Roger II was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, then King of Sicily in 1130 and King of Africa in 1148. By the time of his death at the age of 58, Roger had succeeded in uniting all the Norman conquests in Italy into one kingdom with a strong centralized government.
Roger Borsa was the Norman Duke of Apulia and Calabria and effective ruler of southern Italy from 1085 until his death.
Richard Drengot was the count of Aversa (1049–1078), prince of Capua and duke of Gaeta (1064–1078).
Jordan I, count of Aversa and prince of Capua from 1078 to his death, was the eldest son and successor of Prince Richard I of Capua and Fressenda, a daughter of Tancred of Hauteville and his second wife, also named Fressenda, and the nephew of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. He, according to William of Apulia, "equalled in his virtues both the duke and his father."
Richard II, called the Bald, was the count of Aversa and the prince of Capua from 1090 or 1091. He was under the guardianship of Count Robert of Caiazzo until he came of age in 1093.
The Siege of Capua was a military operation involving the states of medieval southern Italy, beginning in May 1098 and lasting forty days. It was an interesting siege historically for the assemblage of great persons it saw and militarily for the cooperation of Norman and Saracen forces which it necessitated.
Alfonso, also called Anfuso or Anfusus, was the Prince of Capua from 1135 and Duke of Naples from 1139. He was an Italian-born Norman of the noble Hauteville family. After 1130, when his father Roger became King of Sicily, he was the third in line to the throne; second in line after the death of an older brother in 1138. He was the first Hauteville prince of Capua after his father conquered the principality from the rival Norman Drengot family. He was also the first Norman duke of Naples after the duchy fell vacant on the death of the last Greek duke. He also expanded his family's power northwards, claiming lands also claimed by the Papacy, although he was technically a vassal of the Pope for his principality of Capua.
Grimoald Alferanites was the prince of Bari from 1121 to 1132.
Ranulf II was the count of Alife and Caiazzo, and duke of Apulia. He was a member of the Italo-Norman Drengot family which dominated the Principality of Capua for most of the century between 1050 and 1150. Ranulf's wife, Matilda, was the sister of King Roger II of Sicily.
The Battle of Rignano was the second great defeat of the career of Roger II of Sicily and, like the first, the Battle of Nocera, it too came at the hands of Ranulf II, Count of Alife. The prime difference was the position of the two combatants.
Robert of Bassunvilla was the count of Conversano and Loritello. His family had a long history in Vassonville, near Dieppe.
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).
The Treaty of Mignano of 1139 was the treaty which ended more than a decade of constant war in the Italian Mezzogiorno following the union of the mainland duchy of Apulia and Calabria with the County of Sicily in 1127.
The Drengots were a Norman family of mercenaries, one of the first to head to the Mezzogiorno of Italy to fight in the service of the Lombards. They became the most prominent family after the Hautevilles.
Bohemond of Tarsia was the Norman count of Tarsia and Manoppello in the Abruzzi. Invested by Roger II of Sicily on an unknown date, Bohemond's politics centred on controlling the monastery of Casauria.
John was the amiratus or emir of Roger II of Sicily. John was born to the Admiral Eugenius in Palermo, where his family had moved from Troina. His brothers were the logothete Philip and the amiratus Nicholas. His uncle was the notary Basil. All his family members were closely connected to the royal family and in its service. John's son was the equally famous Eugenius II.
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1139, involving many battles and independent conquerors.
The County of Apulia and Calabria, later the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria, was a Norman state founded by William of Hauteville in 1042 in 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.
Maud of Apulia was a member of the Norman D’Hauteville family and a daughter of Robert Guiscard and his second wife Sikelgaita, a Lombard princess, the daughter of Guaimar IV, Prince of Salerno. She was also known as Mahalda, Mahault, Mafalda and Matilda. She was the wife of Ramón Berenguer II, and thus Countess of Barcelona (1078–1082). After her husband’s death, she remarried Aimery I, the Viscount of Narbonne (1086–1108).