Mercenaries to Conquerors: Norman Warfare in the Eleventh and Twelfth-Century Mediterranean

by Paul Brown

When a band of Norman adventurers arrived in southern Italy to fight in the Lombard insurrections against the Byzantine empire in the early 1000s, few would have predicted that within a generation these men would have seized control of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. How did they make such extraordinary gains and then consolidate their power? Paul Brown, in this thoroughly researched and absorbing study, seeks to answer these questions and throw light onto the Norman conquests across the Mediterranean. Throughout he focuses on the military side of their progress, as they advanced from mercenaries to conquerors, then crusaders. The story of the campaigns they undertook in Italy, Sicily, the Balkans and the Near East reveals their remarkable talent for war. The dominant role played by a succession of Norman leaders is a key theme of the narrative – a line of ambitious and ruthless soldiers that ran from Robert Guiscard and Bohemond to Roger II and Tancred.

Genres: History, Medieval, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 28, 2016

About the author

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Reviews

[Alistair Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an exhaustive and comprehensive look at an aspect of the Normans which, from a British perspective at least, is the less well known-their activities in the Mediterranean. Less of a state sponsored exercise than the conquest of England in 1066 Normans fought across the Mediterranean world as soldiers of fortune, adventurers and mercenaries creating states such as Sicily and in the Holy Land as they went.
The author details weapons, tactics and numbers and draws on a number of sources and includes a number of colour photographs which are clear.
While the book is dense and detailed it lacks any sense of narrative and is quite dry, not particularly recommended unless you have an interest in this period.