Southern Italy is on the route of the great pilgrimages of medieval Christianity. Long before the Crusades, the faithful went to the Holy Land, passing through Rome, and then crossing the region of Puglia (Italian region) passing by Mount Gargan, the famous sanctuary dedicated to Saint Michael. Then, they take the sea route, which is faster and relatively safer than the land one. The founding event of the arrival of the first Normans is controversial:
Aimé of Monte Cassino places it in 999. Norman pilgrims returning from the Holy Land found the city of Salerno (Italian city) besieged by the Saracens. At forty, they managed to free her, then returned to Normandy, promising to return.
William of Apulia places it around 1015. Norman pilgrims were solicited by a Lombard aristocrat, Meles, to liberate Apulia from Byzantine domination. In October 1018, the Normans, despite a stinging defeat at Canne (Italy), remained in the region. |
| |
| Routes of the First Crusade |
The Normans were excellent fighters, they went:
-mastered the new technique of fighting on horseback,
-were experts in the handling of the lance,
-knew how to manoeuvre well in groups,
-excelled in the cavalry charge,
and were able to quickly build castles, at first simple clods of earth, surrounded by ditches and protected by a wooden palisade, Then, when the situation is stabilized, they replace the wood with stone walls.
They came mainly from Lower Normandy, mainly from the dioceses of Coutances and Bayeux in the department of La Manche, these regions were relatively poor and poorly controlled by ducal authority before William the Conqueror. They came from the class of lords of modest rank, fleeing the authority of ducal power or unable to give land to their large family. |
|
