The Great Count
Roger de Hauteville rose from unscrupulous Norman brigand to become the legitimate ruler of Sicily in a long-drawn-out campaign of conquest in the 11th century
How Roger de Hauteville conquered Sicily
“[ROGER] HEARD THAT SICILY WAS IN THE HANDS OF THE UNBELIEVERS. SEEING IT FROM CLOSE AT HAND WITH ONLY A SHORT STRETCH OF SEA LYING IN BETWEEN, HE WAS SEIZED BY THE DESIRE TO CAPTURE IT, FOR HE WAS ALWAYS EAGER FOR CONQUEST.” Chronicler Geoffrey Malaterra
Asmall fleet glided through the dark waters at the southern end of the Strait of Messina in a nighttime passage to Sicily in May, 1061. Aboard the ships were several hundred Norman knights that made up the advance guard of an invasion force led by Norman commander Roger de Hauteville. The fleet sailed as quietly as possible to avoid detection by a squadron of Arab warships guarding the northern end of the strait.
After the Norman knights tramped ashore on an undefended beach, Roger led them north on a five-mile march to Messina. When his troops arrived before the south wall of the city, Roger ordered an immediate assault without awaiting the main body scheduled to follow in successive crossings. To the Normans’ great surprise, the town was undefended. Roger’s daring gamble had worked, and he captured the port city without losing a single man.
At the time of his assault the Muslim garrison was patrolling the coastline north of Messina. Since Norman raiders had landed in that area twice before, the Arabs expected them to do so again. In the years to follow, the Normans would funnel men and supplies through Messina to support their military operations on the island.
Apprenticeship in Calabria
A large number of Normans came to southern Italy in the early 11th century seeking their fortune. They found plenty of work fighting for Lombards who resisted the Byzantine rulers of southern Italy. Among the more intrepid and successful mercenaries were the sons from the two marriages of Norman Baron Tancred de Hauteville. Three sons from the first marriage arrived in 1035. The eldest of these, William “Iron Arm”, rose to prominence as Count of Melfi. Upon his death, William was succeeded by Drogo, who in turn was succeeded by Humphrey. From Tancred’s second marriage several sons rose to prominence, the most notable of whom were Robert and Roger.
Robert de Hauteville, the eldest son from Tancred’s second marriage, arrived in time to participate in a pitched battle at Civitate in 1053 between Humphrey de Hauteville’s mounted Normans and Pope Leo IX’S army of Italians, Lombards, and Swabians. The Normans took Pope Leo prisoner after the battle and they persuaded him to acknowledge their territorial claims and accept them as vassals.
Robert, who was dubbed “Guiscard” (Norman French for “the cunning”) for his talents as a military commander, succeeded Humphrey in 1057. Two years later Pope Nicholas II elevated him to the position of Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily to reflect the Normans’ growing prominence.
When Roger de Hauteville arrived in southern Italy in 1057, Guiscard helped his brother get established as a local enforcer in Calabria. Under the terms of their arrangement Roger was to give a large share of his spoils to
Robert who was his overlord. Roger and the other Norman freebooters routinely burned crops, plundered the countryside, and robbed travelling merchants to make their living.
Although Roger quarrelled with Guiscard over the division of spoils in 1058, they eventually patched up their differences and joined forces to conquer Calabria. When the Calabrians rose up against the Normans and killed 70 of their soldiers, Guiscard ordered Roger to crush the rebellion. In return for his services, Guiscard offered his younger brother half of the conquests in Calabria. Roger led an army south from his base at Scalea Castle capturing rebel-held towns as he went. When he reached Reggio, Guiscard joined him to besiege the walled town. Reggio fell to the two brothers following a brief siege in 1060.
Brush with disaster
From his vantage point in Reggio, Roger became tantalised by the prospect of conquering nearby Sicily. “[Roger] heard that Sicily was in the hands of the unbelievers,” wrote chronicler Geoffrey Malaterra. “Seeing it from close at hand with only a short stretch of sea lying in between, he was seized by the desire to capture it, for he was always eager for conquest.”
The Arabs had invaded Sicily in the 9th century and taken it from the Byzantines. In 1060 the island was ruled by several rival emirs. At the time, the population of Sicily was two-thirds Muslim and one-third Greek. The majority of the Greeks lived in the Val Demone region of northeastern Sicily.
Emir Ibn al-hawas, whose base was in the southwestern part of Sicily, was enmeshed in a bloody civil war with Emir Ibn al-timnah, who was based in the southeastern part of the island. A third emir, Abdullah Ibn Haukal, controlled the northwestern part of the island.
Roger conducted two reconnaissance raids to probe the defences of Messina. The first raid in late 1060 found Messina strongly held by the Arabs. The second raid in March 1061 narrowly averted disaster when the Arab garrison from Messina attacked the Normans at their landing point at Cape Faro, 20 miles west of Messina.
At the time these raids occurred, Ibn altimnah was on the verge of defeat in his war with Ibn al-hawas. Deciding to offer his services to the Normans, he sailed to Calabria and met with Roger at Mileto before the second raid.
Ibn al-timnah proposed an alliance whereby he would assist the Normans in conquering Sicily in order to ensure the demise of his archenemy Ibn al-hawas. Roger responded favourably because the al-timnah would be able to furnish guides, provisions, and troops.
“THE NORMANS WON NEARLY ALL OF THEIR PITCHED BATTLES IN THE ENSUING YEARS AS A RESULT OF THEIR SUPERIOR TRAINING, DISCIPLINE, EQUIPMENT, AND LEADERSHIP”
Cautious advance
For the invasion of Sicily in May 1061, the two brothers assembled 2,000 warriors, half of whom were mounted. As the more experienced commander, Guiscard participated in the invasion to ensure success. After Roger captured Messina, the Normans began strengthening the walls and ramparts, building new towers, and stockpiling equipment and provisions.
Once Messina was improved to Guiscard’s satisfaction, the two Hauteville brothers marched into the Val Demone region. They established a forward base at Troina 85 miles southwest of Messina. The Greeks in the Val Demone welcomed the Normans as liberators, while the Muslim noncombatants in the region fled to safer environs. The Norman commanders studiously avoided sieges unless absolutely necessary, preferring to negotiate the surrender of Muslim-held towns.
The brothers then marched into the
Dittaino Valley where they encamped at the base of al-hawas’ principal inland fortress at Castrogiovanni. A Muslim army sallied forth to engage the Normans in open-field battle. Although Roger’s army defeated the Muslims, it found Castrogiovanni’s citadel impregnable.
Death of an ally
The Normans won nearly all of their pitched battles in the ensuing years as a result of their superior training, discipline, equipment, and leadership. Yet Roger found himself hamstrung in the years following the invasion by severe shortage of troops. His main force on average numbered 100 to 300 knights, not counting auxiliary foot soldiers. He not only had to maintain an army for offensive operations, but also garrison captured towns and fortresses.
For this reason, the conquest of Sicily would not take years, but rather decades. In the early years, Roger had to return frequently to the mainland to recruit troops, secure his domains in Calabria, and assist Guiscard in his war with the Byzantines in Apulia. Nevertheless, the Normans had the full support of the Latin church because the papacy wanted to see the island under Christian rule. To inspire Roger and his troops, Pope Nicholas gave them a papal banner to carry into battle.
The conquest of Sicily largely fell on Roger’s shoulders for Guiscard intended to devote most of his resources and energy to fighting the Byzantines. By 1062 the Normans had advanced their front halfway across the northern half of Sicily to the traditional Arab capital at Palermo. Roger was absent for part of the year, though, and when he returned he learned that Emir alhawas’ troops had ambushed and slain his ally Emir al-timnah. It was a substantial blow that would make Roger’s conquest all of the more challenging in the years ahead.
Victory at Cerami
In early 1063, the Muslims regrouped for a counteroffensive, seeking to retake Troina. At stake was the Norman occupation of northeastern Sicily. The Muslim emirs in
Sicily had appealed to the Zirid Sultan Temim of Tunisia for reinforcements, and the sultan dispatched his sons Ayub and Ali with a large number of troops to assist the hardpressed al-hawas.
Roger’s small army took up a strong position on the high ground near the town of Cerami. The Normans withstood the Muslims’ charge, and then launched a counterattack that routed the Muslim army. Roger tried to capture Palermo the following year but his army was too small for the task.
Although he was nearly always short of troops, Roger took great pains to hold onto the territory he had captured by not only strengthening existing fortifications, but when funds were available building new castles.
The Normans ultimately possessed a number of key fortresses scattered throughout the island, including Troina, Mazara, Paterno, Castrogiovanni, Calascibetta, and San Marco d’alunsio.
These fortresses enabled Roger to exert control over the surrounding area and serve as a base for conducting military operations against his Arab foes.
Capture of Palermo
Following his victory at Cerami, Roger destroyed Emir Ayub’s army five years later at Misilmeri, southeast of Palermo. Guiscard arrived in summer 1071 with Genoese and Pisan mercenaries to assist Roger in capturing the capital city. An elite force of 250 Norman knights backed by 750 mercenaries arrived outside the walls of Palermo in August. Robert’s fleet blockaded the city from the sea preventing it from receiving troops and provisions.
In early January 1072, the Normans fought their way over the walls of the city. The capture of Palermo marked the founding of the County of Sicily under Count Roger’s rule. The Normans immediately improved the defences of Palermo to resist a possible counterattack. As his suzerain, Guiscard insisted on ownership of Palermo, part of Messina, and half of the Val Demone. However he allowed Roger to govern the island as he saw fit.
In his new position as count, Roger collected taxes and instituted a conscription plan whereby conquered Greeks were compelled to serve in his army. Roger then turned his attention to completing the conquest of Sicily. A critical test of his ability to hold Palermo occurred in 1079 when Arabs from Tunisia landed near Mazara on Sicily’s west coast. Once again, Roger prevailed over the Muslims. Although Roger had succeeded in conquering northern and western Sicily, the Arabs still had a firm grip on the Val De Noto region in the south-east of the island.
Guiscard died of disease at Cephalonia in 1085 while campaigning against the Byzantines. Roger did not allow his brother’s death to impede his operations in Sicily. By that time the conquest of Sicily had become a war of sieges. Roger’s troops built siege engines onsite to reduce the Muslim strongholds in the Val de Noto. The Normans captured Syracuse in 1085, Agrigento in 1086, and Noto in 1088. By 1093 Roger had mopped up the remaining resistance in Sicily and also captured the key islands of Malta and Pantelleria.
An impressive legacy
Count Roger reigned for nine more years as great count before dying at the age of 70 at Mileto. He had devoted 40 years of his life to conquering Sicily and then administering it after his conquest. His grasp of tactics and his inspiring leadership had enabled him to win a string of impressive victories against Muslim armies in Sicily.
Roger laid the foundation for what would become the Kingdom of Sicily, which his son Roger II established in 1130. The kingdom, which encompassed all of the Norman domains in southern Italy, endured for seven centuries.