Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Conquest (827 to 1101)
- 2 The Apogee (1101 to 1154)
- 3 The Eclipse (1154 to 1194)
- 4 The Impact
- Conclusion
- Appendix A The Fleet (ships, sailors, shipyards, strategies)
- Appendix B The Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- Warfare in History
2 - The Apogee (1101 to 1154)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Conquest (827 to 1101)
- 2 The Apogee (1101 to 1154)
- 3 The Eclipse (1154 to 1194)
- 4 The Impact
- Conclusion
- Appendix A The Fleet (ships, sailors, shipyards, strategies)
- Appendix B The Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
- Warfare in History
Summary
Norman expansion under the Hautevilles was far from over. As David Abulafia aptly observes, ‘Those that conquered Sicily and southern Italy so easily and so rapidly, came to think that they had breached the gates of the whole Mediterranean, and that a limitless empire lay prone before them.’ While credit for the conquest of Sicily must go chiefly to Roger de Hauteville, the ‘Great Count’, it was his son, Roger II, who subsequently elevated his father's county to the kingdom that would become the envy of the western world. Both Byzantine and German emperors sought incessantly to seize it. The basic reason, of course, was the kingdom's contemporary reputation for great wealth. Its centerpiece was its namesake, Sicily, which King Roger's geographer al-Idrisi called ‘the pearl of the age for its abundance and beauty’, and which inspired the twelfth-century Andalusian pilgrim Ibn Jubayr to insist, ‘The prosperity of the island surpassed description.’ Roger II achieved this wealth and attendant power by pursuing three overarching and overlapping objectives: (1) the consolidation of his reign on the mainland in the face of a rebellious nobility operating in alliance with the papacy and the German Empire, (2) the defense of the realm against Byzantine designs and (3) the expansion of Norman power on the Maghrib coast of North Africa. He and his brilliant admiral, George of Antioch, accomplished these objectives through the implementation of a comprehensive naval strategy.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Norman Naval Operations in the Mediterranean , pp. 67 - 127Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011