First full-length analysis of Norman military organisation in the Balkans: events, strategy, and tactics.
The Norman expansion in eleventh-century Europe was a movement of enormous historical importance, which saw men and women from the duchy of Normandy settling in England, Italy, Sicily and the Middle East. The Norman establishmentin the South is particularly interesting, because it represents the story of a few hundred mercenaries who managed to establish a principality in the Mediterranean that would later develop in to the Kingdom of Sicily.
In thisbook the author examines the clash of two different ‘military cultures’ – the Normans and the Byzantines – in one theatre of war – the Balkans. It is the first study to date of the military organization of the Norman and Byzantine states in the Mediterranean, and of their overall strategies and their military tactics in the battlefield. It is also the first to examine the way in which each military culture reacted and adapted to the strategies and tacticsof its enemies in Italy and the Balkans. The author closely follows the campaigns conducted by the Normans in the Byzantine provinces of Illyria and Macedonia and their battles against Imperial armies commanded by the Byzantine Emperor. He also examines the ways in which the Italian-Norman and Byzantine military systems differed, and their relative efficiencies.
Dr GEORGIOS THEOTOKIS is Assistant Professor of European History at Fatih University, Istanbul.
Table of Content
Introduction
Primary sources and the problems of military history
Norman military institutions in southern Italy in the eleventh century
The Byzantine army of the tenth and eleventh centuries
The Byzantine naval forces in the tenth and eleventh centuries: organization and tactics
The establishment of the Normans in southern Italy and Sicily
Robert Guiscard’s invasion of Illyria: From the landing in Corfu to the victory at Dyrrachium
The Norman advances in the Balkans and the end of the dream
Bohemond of Taranto and the First Crusade
The Count’s campaign of 1107 and the Treaty of Devol
Conclusions
Bibliography
About the author
Dr GEORGIOS THEOTOKIS is Lecturer at Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul.
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