526 North Africa
at the Battle of Civitate in 1053 and even taken prisoner.
After a papal ransom and an agreement between Robert
GUISCARD, who had succeeded his brother, William, in
1046, and the new pope, NICHOLASII, in 1059, Robert
was recognized as the legitimate duke of Apulia, Calabria,
and Sicily; the latter two were still under Muslim control,
however. The conquest of that island began in 1061 led
by Guiscard and his brother, ROGERI, the future “great
count” of Sicily. It was completed officially only in 1130,
when ROGERII was recognized as king of Sicily, after
oaths of loyalty to the church of Rome, first to an
antipope, Anacletus II, and then, after the end of a
schism, to Innocent II (r. 1130–43).
The very large city of PALERMOthen became the capi-
tal of the whole of southern Italy. The new kingdom was
helped by older Muslim administrative efficiency, and a
tolerant culture. The Hautevilles recognized local
autonomies and legal and administrative customs. They
used Muslim officials, who were allowed to keep their
Arab and Greek titles as well as assume new Norman
ones. The new kingdom had a sound fiscal and adminis-
trative efficiency, a shrewd control of the ecclesiastical
machinery, and a balanced feudal monarchy, based on feu-
dal institutions with a network of military loyalties built
on local seigniorial rights. The success of this system
probably depended on the skills of the Normans in gen-
eral and the Hautevilles in particular. Peace and prosperity
started to unravel, though, with the death of King
WILLIAMII the Good in 1189 after 57 years of internal
harmony and peace with the church. The HOHENSTAUFEN
dynasty took control in 1194 through a marriage of
William’s daughter, CONSTANCE, to Henry VI (r. 1194–97).
See also FREDERICK II; MONREALE; NORMANS AND
NORMANDY;SICILY.
Further reading:Edmund Curtis, Roger of Sicily and
the Normans in Lower Italy, 1016–1154(New York: G. P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1912); David C. Douglas, The Norman
Achievement, 1050–1110(Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1969); Barbara M. Kreutz, Before the Normans:
Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries(Philadel-
phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); G. A.
Loud, The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the
Norman Conquest(New York: Longman, 2000); David
Matthew, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992); John Julius Norwich,
The Other Conquest(New York: Harper & Row, 1967);
Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Making History: The Normans and
Their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy(Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).
North Africa See AFRICA; IFRIQIYA; AL-MAGHRIB;
MOROCCO.
Norway The history of medieval Norway was bound
up with its colonizing and trading activities around
Britain, in the Atlantic, and in relation to DENMARKand
SWEDEN.
Harald I Fairhair (d. 932) at the Battle of Hafrsfjord
in about 890 acquired supremacy over a number of local
chiefs that led a century later to a unified Norway. The
two converting kings, Olaf I Tryggvason (r. 995–1000)
and then Olaf II Haraldsson (r. 1015–30) or Saint Olaf,
continued Harald’s efforts with greater success, basing
their state-building efforts on what they had seen of the
effects of Christianity farther south in Europe. Conver-
sion to Christianity was one means they pursued and
applied it in ways both brutal and peaceful. At the same
time this society of peasant–fisherman and free indepen-
dent proprietors consciously opposed losing their inde-
pendence to a central authority.
Both kings were killed in battle. Saint Olaf was
defeated by CANUTEII, but his political and religious
structures survived. The bishopric of Trondheim
became the ecclesiastical center of northern Europe.
Canute tried to incorporate Norway into his empire
and temporarily succeeded, but a series of able rulers—
Magnus I the Good (r. 1035–46), Harald III Hardraade
(r. 1046–66), and Olaf III the Peaceful or Gentle
(1066–93)—maintained the countries’ independence.
The 12th century saw considerable conflict over the
church, succession to the throne, and control of the
country.A SHORT-LIVED “GOLDEN AGE”
Haakon the Old (r. 1217–63) was one of the great kings
of Norway, firmly established hereditary kingship, and
laid permanent foundations for a kingdom. He also
annexed ICELANDand GREENLANDand developed a lit-
erary and artistic policy more influenced by Europe to
the south. In the meantime the HANSEATICLEAGUEhad
introduced all over the Baltic and North Sea area a trad-
ing network that included Bergen in Norway. This eco-
nomic union worked to the detriment of royal political
and his economic power. From 1300 a period of politi-
cal and economic decline began, aggravated by the
Black Death between 1349 and 1351. By 1385 Norway
had passed definitively under the control of the Danish
Crown that lasted until the early 19th century.
See also MARGARET OF DENMARK, NORWAY, AND
SWEDEN.
Further reading:Svend Gissel, Desertion and Land
Colonization in the Nordic Countries c. 1300–1600: Com-
parative Report from the Scandinavian Research Project on
Deserted Farms and Villages(Stockholm: Almqvist and
Wiksell International, 1981); Kurt Helle, “Norway in the
High Middle Ages: Recent Views on the Structure of Soci-
ety,” Scandinavian Journal of History6 (1981); 161–189;
Kurt Helle, “Norway,” DMA 9.179–186; P. Urbanczyk,
Medieval Arctic Norway (Warsaw: Semper, 1992); Rolf
Danielsen, ed., Norway: A History from the Vikings to Our
Own Times, trans. Michael Drake (Oslo: Scandinavian