page_title: Robert Guiscard
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Guiscard / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Imaginary portrait of Robert Guiscard by Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781–1853)
context_page_description: Robert Guiscard was a Norman adventurer remembered for the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, went on to become Count of Apulia and Calabria, and then Duke of Apulia and Calabria and Duke of Sicily, and briefly Prince of Benevento before returning the title to the Pope.
  His sobriquet, in contemporary Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, is often rendered "the Resourceful", "the Cunning", "the Wily", "the Fox", or "the Weasel". In Italian sources he is often Roberto II Guiscardo or Roberto d'Altavilla, while medieval Arabic sources call him simply Abārt al-dūqa.
context_section_description: From 999 to 1042 the Normans in Italy, coming first as pilgrims, were mainly mercenaries serving at various times the Byzantines and a number of Lombard nobles. The first of the independent Norman Lords was Rainulf Drengot who established himself in the fortress of Aversa becoming Count of Aversa and Duke of Gaeta.
  In 1038 there arrived William Iron-Arm and Drogo, the two eldest sons of Tancred of Hauteville, a petty noble of the Cotentin in Normandy. The two joined in the revolt of the Lombards against Byzantine control of Apulia. By 1040 the Byzantines had lost most of that province. In 1042 Melfi was chosen as the Norman capital, and in September of that year the Normans elected as their count William Iron-Arm, who was succeeded in turn by his brothers Drogo, Comes Normannorum totius Apuliæ e Calabriæ ("the Count of all Normans in Apulia and Calabria"), and Humphrey, who arrived about 1044.
caption: Robert Guiscard by Merry-Joseph Blondel
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