The Historical Geography of Europe, Vol. I, Text

by Edward A. Freeman

Having thus sketched the changes in the extent of the Eastern Roman Empire during a period of six hundred and fifty years, we have now to trace the geography of the states which, within that time, grew up within its borders or upon its frontiers. These fall naturally into four groups. ♦The Slavonic states.♦ First come the national states which were formed by throwing off the dominion of the Empire. These are mainly the Slavonic powers to the north, Bulgaria, Servia, Croatia, and the later states which arose out of their divisions and combinations. ♦Hungary.
Rouman states.♦ And with these, different as was their origin, we must, for our purposes, place both the Hungarian kingdom which annexed so many of the Slavonic lands, and the Rouman states, so closely connected with Hungarian history, which arose by migrations out of the Empire. ♦The Greek states.♦ Another group consists of the Greek states which split off from the Empire before or at the Latin conquest, and which were not recovered by the Greek Emperors of Nikaia and Constantinople. Both these classes of states belong strictly to Eastern Christendom. Catholic Hungary ruling over Orthodox Slaves forms a link between the East and the West; so do those Slaves who themselves belong to the Latin Church. ♦Latin states with the Empire.♦ Another link is supplied by a third group of states, namely, those parts of the Empire which, either at or before the Latin conquest, came under Latin rule. This class is not confined to the Frank powers in Romania or to the Eastern settlements of Venice and Genoa. ♦Kingdom of Sicily.
Kingdom of Jerusalem.♦ From our point of view it takes in the Norman kingdom of Sicily and the crusading kingdom of Jerusalem with its fiefs. In all these cases, territory which had formed part of the Eastern Empire came under Latin rule. And in all these cases, Latin masters bore rule over alien subjects, Greek, Slave, Syrian, or any other. None of the Latin powers were national states, like the Slavonic or even like the Greek powers. But the foreign masters of these lands were at least European and Christian. The last class consists of powers which lie beyond the range of European and Christian civilization. ♦Turkish dynasties.♦ These are the Turkish dynasties which arose within the Empire. ♦The Ottomans.♦ Of these only the last and greatest, the dynasty of Othman, became geographically European, and swallowed up nearly all the lands which had belonged to the Empire in Europe, together with much which lay beyond its bounds. Here we have, not only the absence of national being, but the rule of the Asiatic over the European, of the Mussulman over the Christian. ♦The New States.♦ Lastly, we come to the partial redressing of this wrong by the re-establishment of independent Greek and Slavonic states in our own century.

These seem to make four natural groups, and it is needful to bear in mind their nature and relations to each other. But it will be more convenient to speak of the several states thus formed in an order approaching more nearly to the order of their separation from the Empire. And first comes a power which parted off so early, and which became so thoroughly a part of Western Europe, that it needs an effort to grasp the fact that its right place is among the powers which had their beginning in separation from the Imperial throne of Constantinople.

§ 2. The Kingdom of Sicily.

♦The Norman power in Italy and Sicily.♦

This is the power which, in the course of the eleventh century, was formed by the Norman adventurers in southern Italy and in Sicily. It was not wholly formed at the expense of the Eastern Empire. But all its insular, and the greater part of its continental, territory, was either won from the Eastern Empire and its vassals, or else had once formed part of that Empire. Its kings also more than once established their power, for a longer or shorter time, in the Imperial lands east of the Hadriatic. With the Western Empire and the Kingdom of Italy the Sicilian kingdom had in its beginnings nothing to do, though it was afterwards somewhat enlarged at their expense.

♦Possessions of the Empire in Italy.♦

When the Norman conquests in Italy began, early in the eleventh century, the Eastern Empire still kept the coast of both seas from the further side of the peninsula of Gargano to the head of the gulf of Policastro. The Imperial duchies of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi, lying to the north of this point, were cut off by the duchies of Benevento, Capua, and Salerno, over which the Empire had at the most a very precarious superiority. ♦Advance of the Normans.♦ Within a hundred years, all these lands, together with the island of Sicily, were brought under Norman rule. Thus grew up a new European power, sometimes forming one kingdom, sometimes two, sometimes held alone, sometimes together with other kingdoms. This power supplanted alike the Eastern Empire, the Saracen powers of Sicily, and the Lombard princes of southern Italy. It started from two points, two distinct Norman settlements, of which the later outshone the earlier. ♦County of Aversa, 1021.♦ The earliest Norman territorial settlement was the county of Aversa, held in vassalage of the Imperial duchy of Naples. ♦Principality of Capua, 1062-1068.♦ Forty years later its counts became possessed of the principality of Capua, of which they received a papal confirmation which implied a denial of all dependence on either Empire. The more lasting duchy of Apulia began later under the adventurers of the house of Hauteville. ♦County of Apulia, 1042.♦ Their first stage is marked by the foundation of the county of Apulia, with Melfi as its capital, under William of-the-Iron-arm. This took in the peninsula of Gargano and the lands immediately to the south of it. ♦Investiture by Pope Leo, 1053.♦ The next stage is when Leo the Ninth invested Count Humfrey, or rather the Normans as a body, with all that they could conquer in Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. ♦Robert Wiscard Duke, 1059.
Completion of the Apulian duchy, 1077.♦ The first of several takings of Tarentum, and the assumption of the ducal title by Robert Wiscard, mark another stage. Less than twenty years later the Eastern Empire kept nothing but the duchy of Naples; Benevento had passed to the Popes. The rest of the lands both of the Empire and of the Lombard princes were now very unequally divided between two Norman lords, the Duke of Apulia and the Prince of Capua. ♦Robert Wiscard in Epeiros, 1081-1085.♦ The Byzantine power west of the Hadriatic being thus overthrown, Robert Wiscard for the first time pushed the Norman arms into the Eastern peninsula itself. For the last few years of his life he held the islands of Corfu and Kephallênia, with Durazzo and the coast to the south, and even inland as far as Kastoria and Trikkala. ♦1147-1150.♦ His power was renewed for a moment by his son Bohemond, and in the middle of the next century Corfu was again for a short time held by King Roger.

♦Norman Conquest of Sicily, 1060-1093.♦

For by that time the island of Sicily was a kingdom of Western Christendom. The second time of Mussulman rule over the whole island was short. In the space of thirty years Count Roger won the great island alike from Islam and from Eastern Christendom. ♦Taking of Messina, 1061;
of Palermo, 1072;
of Syracuse, 1086;
of Noto, 1091;♦ Greek Messina was first won; after a while Saracen Palermo followed; Syracuse was won much later; the last Saracen post in the island to hold out was Noto in the south-eastern corner. ♦of Malta, 1091.♦ Malta, the natural appendage of Sicily, was soon added. The first Norman capital was Messina. Duke Robert, as overlord of his brother Count Roger, kept Palermo and the surrounding district in his own hands. It was not till the next century that the Count of Sicily won full possession of the city. ♦Palermo capital of Sicily.♦ Palermo then became again, as it had been under the Saracens, the head of Sicily.

The ruler of Sicily also became a potentate on the Italian mainland. First the half, then the whole, of Calabria formed part of his dominions. ♦Roger the Second, 1105-1154.
King, 1130.♦ The third Great Count, the first King, of Sicily, Roger the Second, gradually won the whole possessions of his family on the mainland. ♦Capua, 1132-1136.♦ To these he presently added the Norman principality of Capua, first as a dependent territory, then as fully incorporated with his dominions. ♦Naples, 1138.♦ He next won the last possession in the West which was still held by the Eastern Empire, the city of Naples. ♦The Abruzzi, 1140.♦ He then pressed beyond the bounds both of the Eastern Empire and of the early Norman conquests by the annexation of the Abruzzi. He then, as we have seen, extended his power for a moment east of the Hadriatic. Meanwhile he was more successful against the common enemies of Eastern and Western Christendom. ♦Conquests in Africa, 1135-1137.♦ As Sicily had twice been conquered from Africa, Africa now began to be conquered from Sicily. ♦1160.♦ Roger held a considerable dominion on the African coast including Mehadia, Bona, and other points, which were lost under his son William.