320 Guinea
Guinea SeeAFRICA.
Guinevere legendary wife of King Arthur
Guinevere was the wife of King ARTHURand the most
important woman at her husband’s court. In various
accounts of the story she was Arthur’s second wife and a
Roman lady. She shared the responsibilities of ruling the
kingdom with her husband. Her sometimes adulterous
relationship with the perfect knight, LANCELOT, was at
the core of the Arthurian tradition. In some of the ver-
sions of the story she was abducted by Mordred, Arthur’s
nephew or son. Whatever her role in the evolving plots,
her fate was intimately connected with the resulting dis-
astrous destruction of the Round Table and King Arthur’s
ideal court.
See alsoCHRÉTIEN DETROYES;GEOFFREY OFMON-
MOUTH;MALORY,THOMAS; ROMANCES.
Further reading:Lori J. Walters, ed., Lancelot and
Guinevere: A Case Book(New York: Garland, 1996).
Guiscard, Robert (Robert of Hauteville) (ca. 1015–1085)
Norman adventurer
Of the early life in NORMANDYof Robert Guiscard very lit-
tle has been found; he was probably born about 1015 to a
certain Tanered of Hauteville in France. In the 1030s his
older half-brothers, William (d. 1046), Drogo (d. 1051),
and Humphrey (d. 1057), went to southern ITA LYto serve
as mercenary captains in the wars between LOMBARD
dukes and the Byzantine Greeks. Within two decades they
had established themselves in strongholds and carried
great weight in the affairs of southern Italy. In 1046 Robert
joined them in Italy. Robert occupied himself in military
campaigns. In 1049 Robert’s brother Drogo offered him a
castle at Scribla in Calabria and for the next four years
Robert lived a life of brigandage and robbery, earning for
himself the nickname Guiscard or the “Crafty One.”
MILITARY CAMPAIGNSRobert left Calabria in 1053, when a papal army, backed
by the forces of the German emperor, threatened Norman
possessions in the south. In the Battle of Civitate in 1053,
the forces of Norman of APULIAcrushed the armies of
Pope Leo IX (r. 1049–54) and forced papal recognition of
their conquests in the south. Robert spent the next two
years completing the conquest of the last Byzantine pos-
sessions in Italy. In 1057 Robert’s brother Humphrey,
count of Apulia, died, and Robert, by now the most
famous and formidable leader of the Normans, succeeded
him. To his younger brother ROGER, Robert gave the task
of driving the ARABSout of SICILYbetween 1060 and 1091
and adding the island to their possessions.
ALLIANCE WITH THE PAPACYIn 1059 Pope NICHOLASII formally confirmed Robert’s
titles as duke of Apulia and Calabria and duke of SICILY,
although the island had not yet been conquered. Robert,
swore an oath of loyalty, becoming a vassal of the pope,
and agreed to pay tribute. Within a few years, Norman
relations with the papacy had changed completely.
Instead of being viewed as thieves and usurpers, the
Normans had become loyal and faithful papal vassals,
servants, and allies. While Roger concentrated on cap-
turing Sicily, Robert suppressed revolts in Apulia and
Calabria while closing in on the remaining Byzantine
stronghold at BARI. In 1071 Bari fell to Robert, and the
last Byzantine enclave in the West was taken. In the
same year Norman forces finally captured PALERMO, the
capital of Sicily.COMPLETE CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN ITALY
After dealing with yet another rebellion and surviving a
serious illness, Robert renewed his attempts to crush
resistance to his rule. In 1077 he conquered Salerno,
and in 1080, after years of disputes, wrangling over
rights, and exchanging personal insults, Robert renewed
his OATH of loyalty to the papacy to Pope GREGORY
VII. In return he was confirmed in the possession of
his lands in southern Italy. From 1080 on, Robert
began to attack the Byzantine Empire itself, across
GREECE, the northern AEGEANSEA, and eventually even
CONSTANTINOPLE. During 1081 Robert assembled a
massive fleet and army at the ports of Brindisi and Bari.
In May 1081 Robert’s fleet crossed the Adriatic. In a
furious battle at DURAZZO, Robert barely defeated the
army of the Byzantine emperor ALEXIOS I KOMNENOS
and forced him to retreat. Alexios, however, instigated a
revolt in Apulia. This revolt, along with an appeal for
help from GREGORYVII for aid against the army of the
German emperor, Henry IV (r. 1056–1106), sent Robert
to the Italian mainland, where he spent 1082 and 1083
in suppressing a revolt in Apulia and preparing for an
assault on ROMEto rescue Gregory.SACK OF ROME AND DEATH
In 1084 Robert and the Normans entered the city and
sacked it, then took Pope Gregory away with them. Gre-
gory was taken to Salerno, where he died in May 1085.
Several months earlier Robert had returned to Greece,
where he resumed his campaign and captured the island
of Corfu. After wintering on Corfu, the Norman army
was suddenly struck by an epidemic, possibly typhoid
fever, and on July 17, 1085, Robert himself succumbed to
it. He was buried at Venosa in Apulia.
See alsoBOHEMONDI.
Further reading:Finch Allibone, In Pursuit of the
Robber Baron: Recreating the Journeys of Robert Guiscard,
Duke of Apulia and “The Terror of the World”(Luton, Bed-
forshire: Lennard, 1988); David C. Douglas, The Norman
Achievement, 1050–1110(Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1969); G. A. Loud, The Age of Robert Guiscard:
Southern Italy and the Norman Conquest (New York: