Description
Book SynopsisAnalyses of different aspects of the history of warfare in the Mediterranean in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The kingdom of Sicily plays a huge part in the history of the Norman people; their conquest brought in a new era of invasion, interaction and integration in the Mediterranean, However, much previous scholarship has tended to concentrate on their activities in England and the Holy Land. This volume aims to redress the balance by focusing on the Hautevilles, their successors and their followers. It considers the operational, tactical, technical and logistical aspects of the conduct of war in the South throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries, looking also at its impact on Italian and Sicilian multi-cultural society. Topics include the narratives of the Norman expansion, exchanges and diffusion between the "military cultures" of the Normans and the peoples they encountered in the South, and their varied policies of conquest, consolidation and expansion in the different operational theatres of land and sea.
Trade Review[T]he editor has brought together an interesting set of essays which have a close focus on warfare, and he has grouped them into sensible categories. . . . This is a very well-produced volume with an impressive range of pictures, a combined Bibliography and a useful index. * De Re Militari *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Georgios Theotokis Greek and Latin sources for the Norman expansion in the South: their value as "military histories" of the warfare in the Mediterranean Sea - Georgios Theotokis "Conquest in Their Blood": Hauteville Ambition, Authorial Spin and Interpretive Challenges in the Narrative Sources - Francesca Petrizzo "The Arts of Guiscard": Trickery and Deceit in the Norman Conquests of Southern Italy and Outremer, 1000-1120 - James Titterton A Gift to the Normans - The Military Legacy of Sicilian Islam - David Nicolle Norman battle tactics in the Mediterranean theatre of operations: fighting Lombards, greeks, Arabs, and Turks c.1050-c.1100 - Matthew Bennett Venetian Reactions to the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard - from Enmity to Congeniality - Serban V. Marin The Norman Kingdom of Sicily: Projecting Power by Sea - Charles D. Stanton Norman Participation in the First Crusade: a re-examination - Luigi Russo Strategy, the Norman Conquest of Southern Italy, and the First Crusade - Daniel P. Franke Disaster in the Delta? Sicilian support for the Crusades and the Siege of Alexandria, 1174 - Michael S. Fulton Bibliography Index
