Sack of Rome (1084)
| Sack of Rome (1084) | |
|---|---|
| Date May 1084 Location Rome, Italy Result Italo-Norman victory | |
| Belligerents | |
| Holy Roman Empire | County of Apulia and Calabria |
| Commanders and leaders | |
| Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor | Robert Guiscard |
Sack of Rome — In May 1084, Italo-Normans sacked Rome, the result of the Pope Gregory VII's call for aid from the duke of Apulia, Robert Guiscard.[1] The pope had been besieged in the Castel Sant'Angelo by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, in June 1083 and called for aid from Guiscard, who was then fighting the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos in the Balkans. Guiscard then returned to the Italian Peninsula and marched north with 36,000 men.
When Guiscard entered Rome, he forced Henry to retreat, but a riot of the citizens led to a three-day sack by his men, after which Guiscard escorted the pope to the Lateran.[2] The Normans had mainly pillaged the old city, which was then one of the richest cities in Italy. After days of unending violence, the Romans rose up and caused the Normans to set fire to the city. Many of the buildings of Rome were gutted on the Capitoline and Palatine Hills along with the area between the Colosseum and the Lateran. In the end, the ravaged Roman populace succumbed to the Normans.
See also
- Italo-Normans
- History of Rome
References
- Back to citation Hamilton, Louis I. (2003-04-01). "Memory, Symbol, and Arson: Was Rome "Sacked" in 1084?". Speculum. 78 (2): 378–399. doi:10.1017/S0038713400168617. ISSN 0038-7134. S2CID 161684527.
- Back to citation Loud, Graham (2014-07-10). The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Northern Conquest. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-317-90023-8.