5. The Warrior Noblewoman Who Terrified the Mediterranean
Sichelgaita of Salerno (circa 1040 – 1090), a six-foot Amazon, was a Lombard warrior princess and the hereditary duchess of Apulia in southern Italy. Born into the ruling family of the Duchy of Salerno, she exhibited a passion for swordsmanship and horseback riding from an early age. After her father, the duke, was murdered in a palace coup, Sichelgaita helped her brother regain the duchy, and she regained her place as the duchy’s most privileged woman. Brother and sister then had to deal with encroachment from Normans to their south, who had settled in Italy following a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 1058, Sichelgaita met the Normans’ leader, Robert Guiscard, a Norman adventurer who sought to turn southern Italy and Sicily into a Norman domain. It was love at first sight.
Impressed by the six-foot Amazon who went into battle, armed and armored at his side, Guiscard divorced his wife and married Sichelgaita. For the next 18 years, she was Guiscard’s constant companion, on and off the battlefield, helping consolidate his and her family’s hold on southern Italy. In 1076, clad in shining armor and mounted astride a stallion, she rode up to the walls of Salerno, which was ruled by her own brother, and demanded the city’s submission. When her brother refused, Sichelgaita and Guiscard put the city under siege, and starved her brother into surrender. She then took command of the city, and sent her brother into exile.