Norman Participation in the First Crusade: a Re-examination

While the motivations of Norman arrival in Southern Italy are difficult to elucidate, the chronicles of the First Crusade allow us to see the dynamics of a contingent of Normans warriors, according to many sources (Gesta Francorum, Annals of Bari, Hystoria of via and Recuperatione Antiochiae, Chronicle of Montecassino, etc.). Thus, our paper aims to analyze the networks and solidarities that support the maritime transfer of Normans from Southern Italy to East during the late XIth century under the command of Bohemond (and Tancred of Hauteville) and to assess, as far as possible, the role played them in the conquest of the Holy Land. The participation to the First Crusade has been deeply analyzed by the scholarship of the crusading movement in the last two decades: the exemple of the Normans of the South Italy, and the sources at our disposal, will be scrutinized starting from the seminal paper of Evelyn Jamison (cfr. "Some Notes on the ‘Anonymi Gesta Francorum’, with Special Reference to the Norman Contingent from South Italy and Sicily in the First Crusade", in "Studies in French Language and Medieval Literature. Presented to Professor Mildred K. Pope", Manchester 1939, pp. 183-208). In particular, the relationships between the different Norman warriors and Bohemond d'Hauteville will be reanalyzed taking into account the events of the years immediately preceding the appeal of Urban II at the Council of Clermont (1095) and the stressed relations with local authorities in Italy, elements that would have marked decisively the poor success of crusading traditions in the Italian peninsula during the XIIth century.