SKYLARK'S TANCRÈDE DE HAUTEVILLE HOMELAND PAGE
Tancred OF HAUTEVILLE French TANCRÈDE DE HAUTEVILLE (d. Dec. 12, 1112 in the crusade. He was regent of Antioch, and one of the leaders of the First Crusade. Tancrede was the grandson of Robert Guisard and the nephew of Bohemund of Taranto. In 1096 he joined his uncle on the First Crusade, and the two made their way to Constantinople. He led the seige of Nicea in 1097.
Antioch
a principality centred on the city of Antioch, founded by European
Christians in territory taken from the Muslims in 1098, during the
First Crusade. It survived as a Europeanoutpost in the East for
nearly two centuries.
Tancred was a Norman lord of south Italy. He went on the crusade with
his uncle, Bohemond (the future Bohemond I ofAntioch), and first
distinguished himself in Cilicia, where he captured Tarsus from the Turks
and came into conflict with his fellow crusader,Baldwin of Boulogne.
He played a prominent part in most of the major battles of the crusade, and after the capture of Jerusalem (1099) he received the title prince of Galilee. He served as regent of the principality ofAntioch for Bohemond while the latter was a prisoner of the Turks(1101-03), and controlled Antioch permanently after Bohemond returned to Europe in 1104.
As regent of Antioch, and also of Edessa from 1104, to 1108, Tancred became the chief Latin magnate of northern Syria, and engaged in continual warfare with both the Turks and theByzantines until his death. The portrayal of Tancred by Torquato Tasso in theItalian epic poem Gerusalemme liberata is largely imaginary. Three Hauteville brothers-- William, Drogo, and Humphrey--were among the Norman knights who flocked to southernItaly in the early 11th century. The sons of a minor Norman lord,Tancred, the three settled in southern Italy and Sicily, which were atthat time a patchwork of warring towns and principalities. Serving atfirst as mercenaries, the brothers soon began to seize lands for themselves.They also recruited more knights for their wars and campaigns ofplunder.
In 1041 a Norman-Lombard force defeated a Byzantine army near Melfi.
In a still greater challenge, Pope Leo IX led a combined forceof local levies, Germans (Lombards), and others against the Normans at Civitate in 1053. The Normans again scored an impressive victory. A Hauteville, Robert Guiscard (c. 1015-85), a younger halfbrother of the earlier Hautevilles, distinguished himself and became aleader in the Norman conquests. Gradually but methodically, he drove the Byzantine forces from southern Italy. He made peace with Pope Nicholas II in 1059. Robert and his brother, Roger (1031-1101), then invaded Muslim-held Sicily. Roger became Roger I, ruler of Sicily. TheNorman conquests continued until, with the fall of Bari in 1071, thelast Byzantine forces had been driven from the Italian boot. Palermo inSicily, with its great port, fell in 1072. At one time the Normans attacked the Byzantine Empire itself but had to withdraw because of revolts inItaly. Still allies of the papacy, the Norman knights became crusaders in theclosing years of the 11th century. Tancred (c. 1075-1112), a Hauteville,joined the First Crusade in 1096 and gained fame as a military leader. By 1154 Roger II (1095-1154), the youngest living son of Roger I,had extended his kingdom throughout all of southern Italy and Sicily and into Greece, had taken control of part of North Africa, and had made his court at Palermo an important centre of learning and culture. Under later rulers, the Hauteville dynasty gradually faded.
In 1194 King Henry VI of Germany invaded Sicily. Taking complete control of the Norman kingdom, Henry put German officials into key administrative posts.
Tom Campbell is a descendant through Mehitabel Norton, and lives in Washington state.