Guiscard

Guiscard, ROBERT, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, the sixth of the twelve sons of Tancred de Hauteville, was born near Coutances in Normandy about 1015. Following in the wake of his elder brothers, he won great renown in south Italy as a soldier, and after the death of William and Humphrey was proclaimed Count of Apulia. Guiscard next captured Reggio and Cosenza (1060), and thus conquered Calabria, in the possession of which he was confirmed by Pope Nicholas II. Robert now became the pope's champion, and along with his younger brother Roger waged incessant war against Greeks and Saracens in south Italy and Sicily, both of which gradually fell under their arms, the latter being, however, given to Roger as count. The closing years of Robert's life were occupied in fighting against Alexius Comnenus, who had deposed Michael VII. from the throne of Constantinople, Robert being drawn into the quarrel from the fact that he had married his daughter to Michael's heir. Having sent his son Bohemond (q.v.) to reduce Corfu, he himself gained a brilliant victory over Alexius at Durazzo (1081), captured that city (1082), and then marched through Epirus towards Constantinople, when he received information that the Emperor Henry IV. had made an inroad into Italy. He immediately hastened back, compelled Henry to retreat, and liberated the pope, who was besieged in the castle of St Angelo (1084). Then, having returned to Epirus, he defeated the Greeks in several engagements, took possession of some islands in the Archipelago, and was on the point of advancing a second time to Constantinople, when he died suddenly in Cephalonia, 17th July 1085. See works on the Normans in Europe by A. H. Johnson (1877) and T. W. Barlow (1886).