01/25/06
Tom Ryan reviews 'The Normans in the South, 1016-1130', by John Julius Norwich

I am currently reading 'The Normans in the South, 1016-1130' by John Julius Norwich. Although only halfway into it I am struck by a few notable points of interest from this piece of European history, of which I have been quite ignorant.

First, contrary to my expectations, the Norman conquest of Sicily and southern Italy was not a grand military affair of marching down from France in a long procession and knocking everyone on the head in a series of grand battles. It was a slow conquest by a very organized, small societal group bound by strong loyalty and fealty principles, (what today we would call a "gang"). It literally started with a group of 8-10 adventurous knights returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem who got lost and sidetracked on their way home thru Italy, deciding to 'have some fun'.

At the start of the eleventh century Sicily was occupied by Saracens, southern Italy by the Greeks, (Byzantines), and northern Italy was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, the three most powerful empires in the region at the time. Due to this, instead of a large scale attack the Normans slowly emigrated to the region over 2/3 generations and settled there in small bands, selling their services as mercenaries to each side in an alternate fashion and playing one against the other for several generations. Always quick to be on the winning side, (and often to play both sides at the same time to stalemate the Greeks and Romans), until they had established several of their own Ducats and Fiefdoms. Then it was just a matter of inviting more of the family down south, gaining in strength and waiting for their hosts to weaken by fighting each other.

It was a classic parasitic strategy, which, along with several other personal experiences lately, makes me think that this is a much more prevalent strategy in social contexts than I had previously realized. There is a bit of a trading/market/venture capital analogy here but for now suffice it to say that it makes me urge caution when using terms like "the stock market decline came out of the blue". I suspect that such declines do not truly organize without a root somewhere.

There is more to follow, as i am just at the point in 1059 when a Papal succession crisis begins in Rome, Byzantium is being attacked by the Caliphate and when Robert Guiscard is beginning to see his chance to strike.