Albana Mignaty, Marguerite: Sketches of the historical past of Italy: from the fall of the Roman Empire to the earliest revival of letters and arts (London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1876)

194 THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
“ conquered kingdoms,” as in the romances of chivalry;
but with the advantage of “ reality,” and of enormous
wealth and power, won for themselves and their followers.
The Norman leaders had not been unmindful of the
advantages of matrimonial alliances. Robert Guiscard
had espoused the sister of the Prince of Salerno ; and
his younger brother, who held Sicily as a fief1 under
him, had married the daughter of the Count of Flanders.
The marriage of Robert Guiscard, about the year
1076, afforded him a pretext for entering on a wider
field of action; for his daughter had been wedded to the
son of the Greek Emperor, Michael Ducas, and in one of
the convulsions common in Constantinople, an usurper
had driven the latter from the throne. Robert Guiscard,
ever on the alert, instantly landed an army on the coast
of Epirus, seized on Corfu, invaded Bulgaria, and filled
the Eastern Empire with the terror of his name. At
this juncture the summons reached him of the danger of
Gregory VII. from the troops of Henry IV., and he was
called (as we may remember) to the aid of his Suzerain
and liege lord the Pontiff. Without a moment’s hesita-
tion he gave the command of his army to his -son Bohe-
mund; crossed the sea to Apulia, with a small retinue,
and engaged the Saracen garrisons to rescue the Pope.
Gregory VII. was liberated (though Rome was sacked,
burnt, and partially ruined), and Robert returned to the
East, meditating further conquests. But death closed
his career in the island of Cephalonia in the year 1076,
whilst he was preparing for the siege of Constantinople.
Twenty-five years of uninterrupted conquests had
marked the life of this great man; from his obscure and
indigent youth, at Coutances, in Lower Normandy, to his
death, when ruler over Southern Italy, Sicily, and a portion
of the Greek Islands. The highest characteristics of the
Normans were embodied in him. He was as wary as he
was bold, as munificent as he was rapacious; he understood
thoroughly the policy of abiding by a covenant; and,
1 Robert Guiscard’s titles were, “ Dux Italise, Calabrese, and Sicilise.”
Diplom. Monast. arc. 1. 9, n. 23.