Normandy and Sicily for Rogers roots

My grandmother, Ada Swasey, married George Elmore Rogers...there are some interesting lines in Ancestry that my cousin, Patricia has listed.

They aren't in my own family tree because I've not yet decided that all those parents really had those kids.  I'm the "doubter" among the sheep apparently.  But she's (my cousin) in DAR, and lots of other Daughters of ancestors groups, so these people have been accepted by some professional genealogists.

Fartest back on the Rogers listing is "Haliti de Hauteville," living in about the mid-9th century, without known dates, born around 855.

Coat of Arms of the Hauteville family

Wikepia shares:
The family of the Hauteville (French: Maison de Hauteville, Italian: Casa d'Altavilla, Sicilian: Casa d'Autavilla) was a petty baronial Norman family from the Cotentin which rose to prominence in Europe, Asia, and Africa through its conquests in the Mediterranean, especially Southern Italy and Sicily. They also participated in the Norman Conquest of England.

Origins

Department of Manche, location of Hauteville-la-Guichard

The familial origins had roots from the Norsemen Vikings who had settled in Normandy in the 10th century. In Geoffrey Malaterra's account The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of His Brother Robert Guiscard, several allusions are made to the family's ties to the Viking conquest of Normandy by Rollo. They descended from Hiallt, a Norseman who settled in the Cotentin Peninsula and founded the village of Hialtus Villa (Hauteville) from which the family takes its name.^[1][2][3]

From just which village of Hauteville, which may simply mean "high town", the family drew its name is hard to identify with certainty, though modern scholarship favours Hauteville-la-Guichard.
The first of the family well known to us is Tancred of Hauteville, the founder of the eponymous villa. He remained until his death (c. 1041) a minor baron of Normandy, but he had twelve sons and at least two daughters by two wives, Muriel and Fressenda. His small patrimony was hardly enough to satisfy his sons' desire for land and glory and so eight of the twelve went south to the Mezzogiorno to seek their fortunes there.

Mezzogiorno

 Norman conquest of southern Italy

The eldest of the twelve sons, William and Drogo, were the first to arrive in the south sometime around 1035. They so distinguished themselves against the Greeks that William was inaugurated as count of Apulia and Calabria and lord of Ascoli, Drogo as lord of Venosa. In 1047, Drogo was confirmed by the Emperor Henry III as William's heir and a direct vassal of the imperial crown. Their next brother, Humphrey, succeeded Drogo and defeated Pope Leo IX at the Battle of Civitate, making the Hauteville power the highest in the region. He was in turn succeeded by a fourth brother, Robert Guiscard, the first son by Tancred's second wife.

It was Robert who began the conquest of Sicily which was to yield a kingdom seventy years later, as he renewed the war against Byzantium with vigor. Along with the valiant warriorship displayed by his youngest brother, Roger Bosso, the two began to amass notoriety around the Mediterranean.^[4]

According to William of Apulia's The Deeds of Robert Guiscard

, although his Norse roots would seem to suggest otherwise, until the invasion of Sicily, Guiscard had not participated in naval warfare.^[5] It was during this conquest that Guiscard and his amphibious command pioneered the ability to transport over 200 troops in a mere 13 vessels, an advantage that would have an influence in the Norman invasion of England. ^[6] In 1059 he was created duke by the pope and invested with as yet unconquered Sicily, which he gave, in 1071, to his brother Roger with the title of count. The Guiscard's heirs, Bohemond and Roger Borsa, fought over the inheritance and Roger of Sicily began to outshine the Apulian branch of the family.

Roger united the Greek, Lombard, Norman, and Saracen elements of Sicily under one rule and refused to allow religious differences to spoil his conquests. By utilizing a tactic similar to the contemporary Spanish convention of La Convivencia, Roger was able to employ a policy of "conquest by accommodation" in order to unite the island in spite of being significantly outnumbered by the inhabiting Muslim population ^[7]. Roger bequeathed a powerful state to his young sons, Simon and Roger. It was this Roger who, upon inheriting all from Simon in 1105, began the quest to unite into one all the Hauteville domains: Apulia and Calabria (then under Borsa's son William II) and Taranto (which had been given to Bohemond as a consolation for being deprived of Apulia) with his own Sicily.

Kingdom of Sicily
On William's death in 1127, the union of the duchy and the county was effected and Roger's quest for a crown began. Believing kings to have ruled Palermo in antiquity, Roger threw his support behind the Antipope Anacletus II and was duly enthroned as king of Sicily on Christmas Day 1130.
Roger spent most of the decade beginning with his coronation and ending with his great Assizes of Ariano fending off one invader or other and quelling rebellions by his premier vassals: Grimoald of Bari, Robert of Capua, Ranulf of Alife, Sergius of Naples, etc. In 1139, by the Treaty of Mignano, Roger received the recognition of his kingship from the legitimate pope. It was through his admiral George of Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa, taking the unofficial  title "king of Africa."

Roger's son and successor was William the Bad, though his nickname derives primarily from his lack of popularity with the chroniclers, who supported the baronial revolts William crushed. His reign ended in peace (1166), but his son, William the Good, was a minor. During the boy regency until 1172, the kingdom saw turmoil which almost brought the ruling family down, but eventually the realm settled down and the reign of the second William is remembered as two decades of almost continual peace and prosperity. For this more than anything, he is nicknamed "the Good." His death without heirs in 1189 threw the realm into chaos, however.

Tancred of Lecce seized the throne but had to contend with the revolt of his distant cousin Roger of Andria and the invasion of Henry VI of Germany on behalf of his wife, Constance, the daughter of Roger II. Constance and Henry eventually prevailed and the kingdom fell in 1194 to the Hohenstaufen. Through Constance, however, the Hauteville blood was passed to the great Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Crusades The aforementioned Bohemond received in 1088, as a consolation, the principality of Taranto district from the duchy of Apulia which fell as per their father's will to his brother Roger Borsa. Bohemond did not long remain to enjoy his new principality, for while besieging Amalfi with his uncle and brother, he joined a passing band of Crusaders on their way to Palestine. Among his army was a nephew of his, a young man named Tancred.

Bohemond was the natural leader of the crusading host but, through a trick, he took Antioch and did not continue on to Jerusalem with the rest of the army, instead remaining in the newly-conquered city to carve out a principality for himself there. Tancred also left the main Crusade at Heraclea Cybistra to fight for territory in Cilicia. A great state like the one his cousins were forging in Europe, however, was impossible for Bohemond. He was defeated badly at the Battle of Harran and forced later to sign the Treaty of Devol with Byzantium. Nevertheless, his son Bohemond II inherited the Crusader state. He in turn gave it to his only daughter, Constance, who ruled it until 1163.

Tancred had great luck in carving out a principality around Galilee with the grants of Godfrey of
Bouillon, but he relinquished this in 1101.

Genealogy Tancred and his first wife Muriel (or Muriella) had the following issue:

• William Iron Arm, count of Apulia (1042–1046)
• Drogo, count of Apulia (1046–1051)
• Humphrey, count of Apulia (1051–1057)
  • Abelard (d.1081)
  • Herman, count of Cannae (1081–1097)
• Geoffrey, count of the Capitanate (d.1071)
  • Robert I, count of Loritello (1061–1107)
    • Robert II, count of Loritello (1107–1137)
      • William, count of Loritello (1137, d.?)
• Sarlo (or Serlo) I, heir to estates in Normandy
  • Sarlo II (d.1072) married the daughter of Roger de Moulins Count of Boiano.
    • Sarlo III descending from which the Marquis Sarlo of Calabria

Tancred and his second wife Fressenda (or Fedesenda) had the following issue:

• Robert Guiscard, count (1057–1059) and duke of Apulia (1059–1085)
  • Bohemond I, prince of Taranto (1088–1111) and Antioch (1098–1111)
    • Bohemond II, prince of Taranto (1111–1128) and Antioch (1111–1131)
      • Constance, Princess of Antioch (1131–1163)
  • Roger Borsa, duke of Apulia (1085–1111)
    • William II, duke of Apulia (1111–1127)
  • Guy, duke of Amalfi and Sorrento (d.1107)
  • Robert Scalio (d.1110)
  • Emma of Apulia
    • Tancred, Prince of Galilee (1072–1112)
    • William
• Mauger, count of the Capitanate (1056–1059)
• William, count of the Principate (1056–1080)
  • Richard of Salerno, regent of the County of Edessa (1104–1108, d.1114)
    • Roger of Salerno, regent of the Principality of Antioch (1112–1119)
• Aubrey (also Alberic, Alberad, Alvered, Alvred, or Alfred), stayed in Normandy
• Hubert (also Humbert), stayed in Normandy
• Tancred, stayed in Normandy
• Roger Bosso, count of Sicily (1071–1101)
  • Jordan, count of Syracuse (1091–1092)
  • Geoffrey, count of Ragusa
  • Mauger, count of Troina
  • Simon, count of Sicily (1101–1105)
  • Roger II, count (1105–1130) and king of Sicily (1130–1154)
    • Roger, duke of Apulia (1134–1148)
      • Tancred, count of Lecce and king of Sicily (1189–1194)
        • Roger III, king of Sicily (1193–1194)
        • William III, king of Sicily (1194)
    • Tancred, prince of Bari (1132–1138)
    • Alfonso, prince of Capua (1135–1144)
    • William I the Bad, king of Sicily (1154–1166)
      • Roger, duke of Apulia (1154–1161)
      • Robert
      • William II the Good, king of Sicily (1166–1189)
        • Bohemond, duke of Apulia (1181)
      • Henry, prince of Capua (1166–1172)
    • Henry
    • Simon, prince of Taranto (1128–1154)
    • Constance, queen of Sicily (1194–1198)
      • Frederick I of Sicily king of Sicily (1198–1250)

Relatives of unknown relationship include:

• Tancred, count of Syracuse (fl. 1104)
• Simon, count of Syracuse (fl. 1162), possibly a son of Roger II or nephew of Roger I.

References

1. ^ Hill, James S. The place-names of Somerset. St. Stephen's printing works, 1914, Princeton University. Page 256
2. ^ Revue de l'Avranchin et du pays de Granville, Volume 31, Issue 174, Parts 3-4. Société d'archéologie, de littérature, sciences et arts d'Avranches, Mortain, Granville. the University of Michigan.
3. ^ Google books, The British Chronicles, Volume 2 By David Hughes, Page 527
4. ^ Malaterra, Goffredo; Kenneth Baxter Wolf (2005). The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of His Brother Duke Robert Guiscard. USA: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 151. ISBN 0-472-11459-X.
5. ^ G.A. Loud, William of Apulia (1963). M. Mathieu. ed. Palermo: Guillaume de Pouille.
6. ^ Theotokis, Georgios (November 2010). "The Norman Invasion of Sicily, 1061-1072: Numbers and Military Tactics". War in History 17 (4): 381-402.
7. ^ Stanton, C.D. (2010). "Roger de Hauteville, Emir of Sicily"
   . Mediterranean Historical Review 25 (2): 113-132.

Sources

• European Commission presentation of The Normans
  Norman Heritage, 10th-12th century.
• Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.
• Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.
• Pierre Aubé, Roger II de Sicile. 2001.
• Matthew, Donald. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Cambridge University Press: 1992.
• Houben, Hubert. Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West. Trans. G. A. Loud and Diane Milbourne. Cambridge University Press: 2002.
• Medieval Sourcebook: Alexiad—complete text, translated Elizabeth A. Dawes
• Ralph of Caen. Gesta Tancredi. trans. Bernard S. and David S. Bachrach. Ashgate Publishing, 2005.

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Did you follow all that? Me neither!
More about Sir Roger of Sicily tomorrow!