The Normans came from Normandy, a duchy founded by the Viking leader Rollo in 911 and which lasted until 1204. Norman dukes found it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to keep their knights from traveling outside of Normandy. William the Conqueror said with regret of one such knight that he had to take away his lands because he went to Spain without his permission: "I don't think you could find a better knight in the army, but he is fickle, extravagant, and spends all his time scouring different countries." (cit. by: [Petit-Dutailly, 2001, p. 54]). By the end of the eleventh century, the Normans had taken over Southern Italy, England, and Sicily, and were attempting to establish themselves in Asia Minor. The study of the Norman presence in Asia Minor has a long tradition in foreign historiography. In the XVIII century. Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, noted the great role of Norman mercenaries in Byzantium. He argued that they had the "ambition and common sense" not to abandon the conquest of Southern Italy for Asia Minor in the middle of the XI century, as the Byzantine emperors sought, who hoped to stop the expansion of the Seljuk Turks with their help (Gibbon, 2008, p.320). Nevertheless, according to a British researcher, at the battle of Manzikert in 1071, the main force of Byzantium consisted of "mercenary detachments of brave Franks and Normans", who "were under the command of the brave Ursel Baliol, a relative or ancestor of the Scottish kings and were famous for their skill with weapons or, in the Greek expression, skilful performance of the Pyrrhic dance". [Gibbon, 2008, p. 386 et seq.]. The defeat of Roman Diogenes was also due to the fact that, according to Gibbon, he "had the imprudence to divide his forces after the capture of Manazkerd. He tried in vain to win back the hired Franks; they did not comply with his orders, and out of pride he did not want to wait for their arrival" [Gibbon, 2008, p.387]. Correspo ... Читать далее