24. The Adventurous Weasel
Robert Guiscard (1015 – 1085) was the medieval version of an action figure come to life. He led one of the era’s most adventurous lives. Widely known as the Wily or the Weasel, Guiscard was a Norman knight who settled in southern Italy about 1047. After a series of exploits, the Weasel made himself Duke of Apulia in 1059. He then transformed southern Italy into a Norman domain by extending his rule over Calabria, Naples, and Sicily, and laying the foundations for the Kingdom of Sicily.
Guiscard was a descendant of Vikings who had settled in northwest France. There, they learned French, intermarried with the locals, and became Normans. In 911, the French made a face-saving agreement with their leader, Duke Rollo. He was recognized by the King of France as feudal lord of Normandy, in exchange for the Normans’ conversion to Catholicism and undertaking to protect Paris from other Vikings. Their presence in Italy began in the early eleventh century when some Norman pilgrim knights passed through en route to Jerusalem.