Statue cathédrale Coutances Drogon de Hauteville

Drogo of Hauteville (''c''. 1010 – 10 August 1051) was the second

Count of Apulia and Calabria The County of Apulia and Calabria (), later the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria (), was a Norman state founded by William of Hauteville in 1042 in the territories of Gargano, Capitanata, Apulia, Vulture, and most of Campania. It became a duchy whe ...

(1046–51) in southern Italy. Initially he was only the leader of those

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...

in the service of Prince

Guaimar IV of Salerno Guaimar IV (c. 1013 – 2, 3 or 4 June 1052) was Prince of Salerno (1027–1052), Duke of Amalfi (1039–1052), Duke of Gaeta (1040–1041), and Prince of Capua (1038–1047) in Southern Italy over the period from 1027 to 1052 ...

, but after 1047 he was a territorial prince owing fealty directly to the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

. Drogo was born in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, a son of

Tancred of Hauteville Tancred of Hauteville (c. 980 – 1041) was an 11th-century Norman petty lord about whom little is known. He was a minor noble near Coutances in the Cotentin. Tancred is also known by the achievements of his twelve sons. Various legends arose ...

and his first wife, Muriella. Around 1035, he arrived with his elder brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

in southern Italy. With his brother, he took part in the campaign of the Byzantine catepan George Maniaches in Sicily (1038) and then in the campaign of Guaimar IV against the Byzantines in Apulia (1041).Manselli 1960. In 1042, Drogo was one of the twelve Norman leaders who met at

Melfi Melfi ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Vulture area of the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Geographically, it is midway between Naples and Bari. In 2015 it had a population of 17,768. Geography On ...

to elect his brother William their first count under Guaimar's suzerainty. In the ensuing twelve-part division of the conquered territory in northern Apulia, Drogo received

Venosa Venosa ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the Vulture area. It is bounded by the comuni of Barile, Ginestra, Lavello, Maschito, Montemilone, Palazzo San Gervas ...

. In 1044–45, Drogo fought on behalf of his brother in Apulia. In 1045, he seized

Bovino Bovino is a '' comune'' and hill town at the eastern side of the Apennines in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southern Italy. Located within the woody Daunian Mountains as a terrace over the Tavoliere plains, Bovino is currently a member of the ...

from the Byzantines. After William's death in 1046, Drogo and Peter of Trani were vied to succeed him. Having the support of Guaimar, Drogo was elected by his fellow Normans. In 1047, Drogo married Altrude of Salerno, a Lombard princess. He reached an agreement with the Abbey of Montecassino, which intervened on his behalf to convince Guaimar to release the Norman

count of Aversa In 1030, the first Norman foothold in the Mezzogiorno was created when Sergius IV of Naples gave the town and vicinity of Aversa as a county to Ranulf. The following are the counts of Aversa: *Rainulf I 1030–1045 * Asclettin 1045 (nephew of pr ...

, Rainulf II, whom he had imprisoned. On 3 February 1047, while the

Emperor Henry III Henry III (28 October 1016 – 5 October 1056), called the Black or the Pious, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1046 until his death in 1056. A member of the Salian dynasty, he was the eldest son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia. Henry was raised by ...

was visiting southern Italy, he received Drogo's homage and invested him with all the territory which he already controlled. After this Drogo began using the title "Duke and Master of all Italy and Count of all the Normans of Apulia and Calabria". Although legally, as a direct vassal of the emperor, he was on the same plane as Guaimar, according to the opinion of the historian

Ferdinand Chalandon Ferdinand Chalandon (February 10, 1875 – October 31, 1921) was a French medievalist and Byzantinist. Chalandon's work remains the most substantial study of the Normans in Italy and though the details of what he wrote a hundred years ago have in ...

, he remained a feudal dependent of the prince of Salerno. When Drogo's younger half-brother, Robert Guiscard, arrived in Italy before 1050, he was ordered to leave the service of Guaimar's rival, Prince Pandulf IV of Capua, presumably on account of Drogo's obligations to the former. Other newly arrived Normans also gave him trouble: Richard Drengot attacked him and was captured. Only the intervention of Guaimar could secure Richard's release late in 1047 or early in 1048. Tomba degli Altavilla

In 1051, Drogo met with

Pope Leo IX Pope Leo IX (21 June 1002 – 19 April 1054), born Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically ...

, when the latter visited southern Italy at the emperor's command to re-establish the "freedom of the church" (''libertas ecclesiae''). Leo forced a promise from Drogo that he would stop the Normans from pillaging. In August, as he was returning from this meeting with the pope, Drogo was assassinated at Monteilaro,Also given as Montoglio, Monte Allegro or Monte Ilario, perhaps to be identified with Orsara di Puglia. near

, the victim of a Byzantine conspiracy organised by the Catepan Argyrus, who was planning the reconquest of Apulia. Drogo was buried in the church of the Santissima Trinità in Venosa. Drogo was succeeded by his younger brother

Humphrey Humphrey is both a masculine given name and a surname. An earlier form, not attested since Medieval times, was Hunfrid. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Medieval period :''Ordered chronologically'' *Hunfrid of P ...

after a brief interregnum. A certain

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

, who joined the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic r ...

, has been identified as Drogo's son.

Notes

Sources

*Raoul Manselli. "Altavilla, Drogone d'". ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', vol. 2, Alberto Ghisalberti (ed.) Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, 1960. * H. M. Gwatkin and J. P. Whitney, edd. ''The Cambridge Medieval History'', vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926. * John Julius Norwich. ''The Normans in the South, 1016–1130''. London: Longmans, 1967. *

. ''Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicilie''. Paris: 1907. *

Christopher Gravett Christopher Gravett is an assistant curator of armour at the Tower Armouries specialising in the arms and armour of the medieval world. Gravett has written a number of books and acts as an advisor for film and television projects. Selected wo ...

and

David Nicolle David C. Nicolle (born 4 April 1944) is a British historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages, with a particular interest in the Middle East. David Nicolle worked for BBC Arabic before getting his MA at SOAS, University ...

. ''The Normans: Warrior Knights and their Castles''. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2006. *George Beech. ''A Norman-Italian Adventurer in the East: Richard of Salerno''. 1993.

External links

History of the Norman World
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hauteville, Drogo Of 1051 deaths Italo-Normans Norman warriors Counts of Apulia and Calabria Assassinated royalty Year of birth uncertain Drogo Burials at the Abbey of Santissima Trinità, Venosa