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Tancred Of Conversano
Tancred of Conversano, the youngest son of Geoffrey, Count of Conversano, became the count of Brindisi on his father's death in 1100. Tancred's elder brother Alexander succeeded their father as count of Conversano. In 1121, Count Roger II of Sicily invaded the Basilicata to annex the county of Montescaglioso which had formerly been held by his sister Emma in right of her deceased husband Rudolf Maccabeus. In April, Tancred assisted Duke William II of Apulia and Prince Bohemond II of Taranto and Antioch in conquering the castle of Basento, within the county of Montescaglioso claimed of Roger. With the help of Pope Callistus II, a treaty, however, ended hostilities between the descendants of Tancred of Hauteville. Tancred was recognised as count of Brindisi. Tancred became part of a grand alliance of rebels, including Robert II of Capua, Ranulf II of Alife, Grimoald of Bari, Geoffrey of Andria, and Roger of Ariano. In the spring of 1129, Roger entered the peninsula with a grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey, Count Of Conversano
Geoffrey the Elder (died September 1100) was an Italo-Norman nobleman. A nephew of Robert Guiscard through one of his sisters, he was the count of Conversano from 1072 and the lord of Brindisi and Nardò from 1070, until his death. Biography The identity of Geoffrey's parents is unknown, but it is believed that his mother was a daughter of Tancred of Hauteville and it has been speculated that his father was Armand of Mortain. According to Goffredo Malaterra, Geoffrey conquered most of his lands with his own energy (''sua strenuitate'') and without the help of Robert Guiscard. Thus, when, in 1067, Guiscard demanded homage for the castle of Montepeloso, Geoffrey refused. Robert brought him to heel in the subsequent war and Geoffrey did homage. Among the other lands Geoffrey had conquered from the Byzantines were Polignano and Monopoli. Geoffrey joined his cousins Abelard and Herman, his brother Robert, and Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo in the rebellion of 1079–1082, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Of Ariano
Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages">Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ("spear", "lance") (Hrōþigēraz). The name was introduced into England by the Normans. In Normandy, the Franks, Frankish name had been reinforced by the Old Norse cognate '. The name introduced into England replaced the Old English cognate '. ''Roger'' became a very common given name during the Middle Ages. A variant form of the given name ''Roger'' that is closer to the name's origin is '' Rodger''. Slang and other uses From up to , Roger was slang for the word "penis". In ''Under Milk Wood'', Dylan Thomas writes "jolly, rodgered" suggesting both the sexual double entendre and the pirate term "Jolly Roger". In 19th-century England, Roger was slang for another term, the cloud of toxic green gas that swept through the chlori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of Government of the United Kingdom, the national government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. London grew rapidly 19th-century London, in the 19th century, becoming the world's List of largest cities throughout history, largest city at the time. Since the 19th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longmans
Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in 1724 in London, England, which is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also used for the Longman Schools in China and the '' Longman Dictionary''. History Beginnings The Longman company was founded by Thomas Longman (1699 – 18 June 1755), the son of Ezekiel Longman (died 1708), a gentleman of Bristol. Thomas was apprenticed in 1716 to John Osborn, a London bookseller, and at the expiration of his apprenticeship married Osborn's daughter. In August 1724, he purchased the stock and household goods of William Taylor, the first publisher of ''Robinson Crusoe'', for 9s 6d. Taylor's two shops in Paternoster Row, London, were known respectively as the ''Black Swan'' and the ''Ship'', premises at that time having signs rather than numbers, and became the publishing house premises. Longman entered int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4.7 million inhabitants, including 1.2 million in and around the capital city of Palermo, it is both the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily is named after the Sicels, who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age. Sicily has a rich and unique culture in #Art and architecture, arts, Music of Sicily, music, #Literature, literature, Sicilian cuisine, cuisine, and Sicilian Baroque, architecture. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world, currently high. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. It is separated from Calabria by the Strait of Messina. It is one of the five Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falco Of Benevento
Falco of Benevento (; ) was an Italian-Lombard twelfth-century historian, notary and scribe in the papal palace in Benevento, his native city, where he was born to high-standing parents. He is an important chronicler for the years between 1102 and 1139 in the Mezzogiorno. As an historian, he is not only reliable, as he was often an eyewitness to events he recounts, but also partisan, for he was a Lombard by birth and he fiercely opposed the Normans, whom he saw as barbarians. He was an opponent of King Roger II of Sicily, and a supporter of Innocent II against Roger's friend Anacletus II. He was, above all, a patriotic supporter of Benevento. As a supporter of Innocent II, Falco was exiled from Benevento in 1134. T.S. Brown writes that Falco demonstrated "a blazing pride in his city and a vitriolic hate of the Normans."T. S. Brown, "The Political Use of the Past in Norman Sicily," in: Parts of his chronicle are now lost, but were apparently used for the years 1099–11 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Engine
A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while others have wheels to enable advancing up to the enemy fortification. There are many distinct types, such as siege towers that allow foot soldiers to scale walls and attack the defenders, battering rams that damage walls or gates, and large ranged weapons (such as ballistas, catapults/ trebuchets and other similar constructions) that attack from a distance by launching heavy projectiles. Some complex siege engines were combinations of these types. Siege engines are fairly large constructions – from the size of a small house to a large building. From antiquity up to the development of gunpowder, they were made largely of wood, using rope or leather to help bind them, possibly with a few pieces of metal at key stress points. They could la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capua
Capua ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, located on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan ''Capeva''. The meaning of the name is 'City of Marshes'. Its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date is given as about 260 years before it was "taken" by Rome. That, if true, refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War (211 BC), but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC. That places the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest. In the area, several settlements of the Villanovian civilization were present in prehistoric times. These were probably enlarged by the Oscans, and subsequently by the Etruscans. Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the Samnites' invasion in the latter half of the 5th century BC. In about 424 BC, Capua was captured by the Samnites, and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barletta
Barletta (; Salentino: ''Varrétte'' or ''Barlétte'') is a city and ''comune'' in Apulia, in southeastern Italy. Barletta is the '' capoluogo'', together with Andria and Trani, of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It has a population of around 94,700 citizens. The city's territory belongs to the Valle dell'Ofanto. The Ofanto river crosses the countryside and forms the border between the territory of Barletta and that of Margherita di Savoia. The mouth of the river is in the territory of Barletta. The area of Barletta also includes part of the battlefield of Cannae. This is a very important archeological site, remembered for the major battle in 216 BC between the Romans and the Carthaginians, won by Hannibal. The site has been recognised as Città d'Arte (''city of art'') of Apulia in the 2005 for the beautiful architecture. Cannae flourished in the Roman period and then after a series of debilitating Saracen attacks, was finally destroyed by the Normans and then a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venosa
Venosa (Neapolitan language, 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 Gervasio, Rapolla and Spinazzola. It is one of ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). History Antiquity The city was known as Venusia ("City of Venus (goddess), Venus") to the Romans, who credited its establishment—as Aphrodisia ("City of Aphrodite")—to the Homeric hero Diomedes. He was said to have moved to Magna Graecia in southern Italy following the Trojan War, seeking a life of peace and building the town and its temples to appease the anger of Aphrodite for the destruction of her beloved Troy. The town was taken by the Roman Republic, Romans after the Third Samnite War in 291 BC and became a Roman colony, colony for its strategical position between Apulia and Lucania. No fewer than 20,000 men were sent there, owing t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 a hill at the foot of Mount Vulture, Melfi is the most important town in Basilicata's Vulture, both as a tourist resort and economic centre. Its municipality lies next to the borders with Campania and Apulia, and borders with Aquilonia ( AV), Ascoli Satriano ( FG), Candela (FG), Lacedonia (AV), Lavello, Monteverde (AV), Rapolla, Rionero in Vulture and Rocchetta Sant'Antonio (FG). Its hamlets (''frazioni'') are the villages of Camarda, Capannola, Foggianello, Foggiano, Isca ricotta, Leonessa, Masseria Casella, Masseria Catapane, Masseria Menolecchia, Parasacco, San Giorgio di Melfi, San Nicola, Vaccareccia and Villa Mariannina. History Early history and Middle Ages Inhabited by the Daunians and Lucanians, under the Romans, Melfi was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, writer of widely read travel books, and television personality. Biography Youth Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing Home on Portland Place in Marylebone, London, on 15 September 1929. He was the son of the Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, later Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Manners, a celebrated beauty and society figure. He was given the name "Julius" in part because he was born by caesarean section. Such was his mother's fame as an actress and beauty that the birth attracted a crowd outside the nursing home and hundreds of letters of congratulations. Through his father, he was descended from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. He was educated at Egerton House School in Dorset Square, London, later becoming a boarder at the school when it was evacuated to Northamptonshire before the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
