Byzantine–Norman wars

The Normans' initial military involvement in southern Italy was on the side of the Lombards against the Byzantines. Eventually, some Normans, including the powerful de Hauteville brothers, served in the army of George Maniakes during the attempted Byzantine reconquest of Sicily, only to turn against their employers when the emirs proved difficult to conquer. By 1030, Rainulf became count of Aversa, marking the start of permanent Norman settlement in Italy. To further strengthen ties and legitimacy, Robert Guiscard also married Lombard Princess Sikelgaita in 1058. In 1079–80, the Byzantines again gave their support to a rebellion against Guiscard. This support came largely in the form of financing smaller Norman mercenary groups to assist in the rebellion. ==First Norman invasion of the Balkans (1081–1085)==

Following their successful conquest of southern Italy, the Norman faction led by Robert Guiscard saw no reason to stop; Byzantium was decaying further still and looked ripe for conquest. Further pressing Norman motivation to invade was consistent support by the Byzantines for uprisings against Robert Guiscard. The Western edge of the Byzantine empire in particular was known for being a safe haven for rebel groups. The Normans continued to take cities around Dyrrhachium, marching to and taking Castoria, and preparing to launch an attack at the second city of the empire, Thessaloncia. Alexios, desperatly looking for a way to save his empire, took drastic diplomatic action. He hoped to make the Holy Roman Emperor assault the Papal States, the Normans' nominal suzerain since 1080, in order to force Guiscard to march to the pope's aid. He enhanced his offer by bribing the German king Henry IV with 360,000 gold pieces to attack the Normans as well as the papacy in Italy, which forced Guiscard to concentrate on his defenses at home in 1083–1084, and he sailed home with the majority of his force, leaving Bohemond in command of the remaining Normans in the Balkans. He also secured the alliance of Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, who controlled the Gargano peninsula and dated his charters by Alexios's reign. Bohemond began his campaign with vigor. Instead of marching against Thessaloncia, like his father had planned, Bohemond marched south to Ioannina, the capital of Epirus. The city quickly surrendered, while Alexios had regrouped since Dyrrhachium, and, having mustered a new army, rode to retake the city. Sometime in summer 1082, Alexios and Bohemond met outside of Ioannina. Numbers are unknown, but it is estimated that Alexios slightly outnumbered the Normans. Alexios had hoped to lure Bohemond into a frontal charge, where he could then flank the Normans. However, Bohemond instead ordered his knights to charge from the flanks, surprising the Romans, who quickly routed, with most of the infantry slaughtered. Alexios fled once more to Thessalonica, where he levied a new army, paying for them mainly with Orthodox treasures from churches. Bohemond, meanwhile, continued to march south, where he besieged Arta. However, unlike Ioannina, Arta held out. Alexios once again marched to relieve the besieged cities, forcing Bohemond to lift the siege to meet Alexios's army. Before the battle, Alexios placed stakes to impale the Normans' horses, but Bohemond again outflanked the emperor with his knights, crushing Alexios's army once more. The Romans, fully demoralized from several defeats, withdrew almost instantly once they became flanked, and the front line infantry was again surrounded and slaughtered. However, unlike Dyrrhachium and Ioannina, the Romans did not fully rout, and Alexios managed to restore order among his men, and retreat. Bohemond, pressing his advantage, did not renew the siege, but instead marched north, subduing Skopje before marching back to Castoria for the winter. However, the young Norman had grown confident in his army after his victories, and, instead of wintering in warm beds, decided to besiege Larissa, the regional capital. ==Rebellion of Antioch (1104–1140)==

During the time of the First Crusade, the Byzantines were able to utilize, to some extent, Norman mercenaries to defeat the Seljuk Turks in numerous battles. These Norman mercenaries were instrumental in the capture of multiple cities. It is speculated that, in exchange for an oath of loyalty, Alexios promised land around the city of Antioch to Bohemond in order to create a buffer vassal state and simultaneously keep Bohemond away from Italy. However, when Antioch fell the Normans refused to hand it over, With the death of John Comnenus the Norman Principality of Antioch rebelled once again, invading Cilicia (which would also rebel), and sacking much of Cyprus. The quick and energetic response of Manuel Komnenus allowed the Byzantines to extract an even more favorable modus vivendi with Antioch (in 1145 being forced to provide Byzantium with a contingent of troops and allow a Byzantine garrison in the city). However, the city was given guarantees of protection against Turkic attack and Nur ad-Din Zangi abstained from attacking the northern parts of the Crusader states as a result. ==Second Norman invasion of the Balkans (1147–1149)==

in 1154, at the time of Roger's death, is shown by a thicker black line encircling most of southern Italy. In 1147 the Byzantine empire under Manuel I Comnenus was faced with war by Roger II of Sicily, whose fleet had captured the Byzantine island of Corfu and plundered Thebes and Corinth. However, despite being distracted by a Cuman attack in the Balkans, in 1148 Manuel enlisted the alliance of Conrad III of Germany, and the help of the Venetians, who quickly defeated Roger with their powerful fleet. In 1148, the political situation in the Balkans was divided by two sides, one being the alliance of the Byzantines and Venice, the other the Normans and Hungarians. The Normans were sure of the danger that the battlefield would move from the Balkans to their area in Italy. The Serbs, Hungarians and Normans exchanged envoys, being in the interest of the Normans to stop Manuel's plans to recover Italy. In 1149, Manuel recovered Corfu and prepared to take the offensive against the Normans, while Roger II sent George of Antioch with a fleet of 40 ships to pillage Constantinople's suburbs. Manuel had already agreed with Conrad on a joint invasion and partition of southern Italy and Sicily. The renewal of the German alliance remained the principal orientation of Manuel's foreign policy for the rest of his reign, despite the gradual divergence of interests between the two empires after Conrad's death. However, while Manuel was in Valona planning the offensive across the Adriatic, the Serbs revolted, posing a danger to the Byzantine Adriatic bases. ==Manuel I's intervention in southern Italy (1155–1156)==

The death of Roger in February 1154, who was succeeded by William I, combined with the widespread rebellions against the rule of the new King in Sicily and Apulia, the presence of Apulian refugees at the Byzantine court, and Frederick Barbarossa's (Conrad's successor) failure to deal with the Normans encouraged Manuel to take advantage of the multiple instabilities that existed in the Italian peninsula. He sent Michael Palaiologos and John Doukas, both of whom held the high imperial rank of sebastos, with Byzantine troops, 10 Byzantine ships, and large quantities of gold to Apulia (1155). The two generals were instructed to enlist the support of Frederick Barbarossa, since he was hostile to the Normans of Sicily and was south of the Alps at the time, but he declined because his demoralised army longed to get back north of the Alps as soon as possible. Nevertheless, with the help of disaffected local barons including Count Robert of Loritello, Manuel's expedition achieved astonishingly rapid progress as the whole of southern Italy rose up in rebellion against the Sicilian Crown, and the untried William I. There followed a string of spectacular successes as numerous strongholds yielded either to force or the lure of gold. William and his army landed on the peninsula and destroyed the Greek fleet (4 ships) and army at Brindisi on May 28, 1156, and recovered Bari. Pope Adrian IV came to terms at Benevento on June 18, 1156, where he and William signed the Treaty of Benevento, abandoning the rebels and confirming William as king. During the summer of 1157, he sent a fleet of 164 ships carrying 10,000 men to sack Euboea and Almira. In 1158 William made peace with the Romans. ==Third Norman invasion of the Balkans (1185–1186)==

Although the last invasions and last large scale conflict between the two powers lasted less than two years, the third Norman invasions came closer still to taking Constantinople. Then Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos had allowed the Normans to go relatively unchecked towards Thessalonica. While David Komnenos had made some preparations in anticipation of the encroaching Normans, such as ordering reinforcement of the cities walls' and assigning four divisions to the cities' defense, these precautions proved insufficient. Only one of the four divisions actually engaged the Normans, resulting in the city being captured with relative ease by Norman forces. Upon gaining control of the city Norman forces sacked Thessalonica. The following panic resulted in a revolt placing Isaac II Angelos on the throne. In the aftermath of the fall of Andronikos, a reinforced Byzantine field army under Alexios Branas decisively defeated the Normans at the Battle of Demetritzes. Following this battle Thessalonica was speedily recovered and the Normans were pushed back to Italy. The exception was the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, which remained in the hands of the Norman admiral Margaritus of Brindisi and his successors under the Kingdom of Sicily for three centuries until 1479, when it was captured by the Ottomans and later divided between the Ottomans and Republic of Venice. ==Aftermath==

With the Normans unable to take the Balkans, they turned their attention to European affairs. The Byzantines meanwhile had not possessed the will or the resources for any Italian invasion since the days of Manuel Comnenus. After the third invasion, the survival of the Empire became more important to the Byzantines than a mere province on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. The death of William II, who was without an heir, threw the kingdom into instability and upheaval, and by 1194 the Hohenstaufen had taken power, themselves being replaced in 1266 by the Angevins. The successive Sicilian rulers would eventually continue the Norman policy of domination over post-Byzantine states in the Ionian Sea and Greece, attempting to assert suzerainty over Corfu, finally conquered in 1260, the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, the Despotate of Epirus and other territories. == Citations ==

Primary • Anna Comnena, translated by E. R. A. Sewter (1969). The Alexiad. London: Penguin Books. . Secondary • • • Charanis, Peter. (1952). "Aims of the Medieval Crusades and How They Were Viewed by Byzantium." Church History, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 123–134. • Davis-Secord, Sarah. (2017). "Sicily at the Center of the Mediterranean". Where Three Worlds Met: Sicily in the Early Medieval Mediterranean. Cornell University Press. . • • • Christopher Gravett and David Nicolle (2006). The Normans: Warrior Knights and Their Castles. Oxford: Osprey. . • John Haldon (2000). The Byzantine Wars. The Mill: Tempest. . • Holmes, George. (1988). The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe. Oxford University Press. . • Richard Holmes (1988). The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations That Changed the Course of History. Middlesex: Penguin. . • Loud, G. A. (1999). "Coinage, Wealth, and Plunder in the Age of Robert Guiscard". The English Historical Review. Vol. 114, No. 458, pp. 815–843. • • • McQueen, William B. "Relations Between the Normans and Byzantium 1071–1112". Byzantion, vol. 56, 1986, pp. 427–476. . Accessed 22 Apr. 2020. • • • Rowe, John Gordon. (1959). "The Papacy and the Greeks (1122–1153)". Church History. Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 115–130. • Shepard, Jonathan. (1973). "The English and Byzantium: A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century". Traditio, Vol. 29. pp. 53–92. • • •