Robert Guiscard

Robert Guiscard
Coin of Robert Guiscard
Count of Apulia and Calabria
Reign	August(?) 1057 – 23 August 1059
Predecessor	Humphrey of Hauteville
Duke of Apulia and Calabria
Reign	23 August 1059 – 17 July 1085
Successor	Roger Borsa
Lord of Sicily
Reign	23 August 1059 – 1071
Successor	Roger I
Prince of Benevento
Reign	1078 - 1081
Predecessor	Landulf VI
Born	c. 1015 Hauteville-la-Guichard or somewhere else in Contentin, Normandy
Died	17 July 1085(1085-07-17) (aged 69–70) Cephalonia
Burial	Abbey of the Santissima Trinità, Venosa
Spouses	Alberada of Buonalbergo, Sikelgaita
Issue	By Alberada (ill.): Bohemund I Emma By Sikelgaita: Elena (Olimpyas) Héria or Gersent, (wife of Hugh V) Matilda Roger Borsa Guy Sybilla, (wife of Ebles II) Mabile Robert Scalio
Noble family	Hauteville
Father	Tancred of Hauteville
Mother	Fressenda
Religion	Catholic

Robert "Guiscard" de Hauteville, sometimes Robert "the Guiscard" (/ɡiːˈskɑːr/ ghee-SKAR,^[1] Modern French: [ɡiskaʁ]; c. 1015 – 17 July 1085), was a Norman adventurer remembered for his conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century.^[2]

Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, the sixth son of Tancred de Hauteville and his wife Fressenda. Through his mother, he was possibly a grandson of Richard the Fearless. He inherited the County of Apulia and Calabria in 1057, and in 1059 he was made Duke of Apulia and Calabria^[3] and Lord of Sicily^[4] by Pope Nicholas II. He was also briefly Prince of Benevento (1078–1081), before returning the title to the papacy.

Robert's sobriquet, in contemporary Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, is often rendered "the Resourceful", "the Cunning", "the Wily", "the Fox", or "the Weasel". In Italian sources he is often identified as Roberto il Guiscardo or Roberto d'Altavilla (meaning Robert de Hauteville), while medieval Arabic sources call him simply Abārt al-dūqa (Duke Robert).^[5]