From Rouen to Antioch: a map of the Norman world

In 1047 the young William, aided by the King of France, crushes his rebel barons. From that day he is Normandy's undisputed master.

In 1106 Henry I of England defeats and captures his brother Robert, Duke of Normandy. Both shores of the Channel fall under one hand again.

On 28 September 1066 William's fleet lands at Pevensey, inside the Roman fort's walls. No one waits for him: Harold is at York, fresh from beating the Norwegians.

On 14 October 1066 Harold's army falls on the hill at Battle, and the king dies in the fight. The conquest starts here, but England takes years of campaigning to subdue.

On Christmas Day 1066 William is crowned in Edward the Confessor's abbey. Outside, the Norman guards set houses alight at the cheering, mistaking it for revolt.

After the northern revolt (1069) William harries the land between York and Durham: burnt villages, ruined harvests. Domesday Book (1086) still lists many manors as “waste”.

In 1070 Lanfranc, a Lombard jurist come by way of Normandy, becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. He rebuilds the cathedral and binds the English Church to Rome.

In 1170 Richard de Clare (Strongbow) takes Dublin for the Norman cause. From this Irish bridgehead grows Anglo-Norman lordship of the island.

In 1030 Rainulf Drengot receives Aversa and founds the first Norman county in Italy. Mercenaries become lords with charters.

Taken in 1041, Melfi becomes the Norman capital: here they divide the conquests (1043), and in 1059 Pope Nicholas II enfeoffs Robert Guiscard with Apulia and Calabria.

On 18 June 1053 a few thousand Normans crush Pope Leo IX's army, and the pope is taken prisoner. Defeat opens the road to the Melfi settlement (1059).

After a three-year siege Bari falls in April 1071. With it ends Byzantine rule in Italy, more than five centuries old.

In January 1072 Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger enter Palermo. Sicily's conquest takes two more decades; the emirate's capital becomes the county's.

In December 1076 Salerno, the last Lombard principality, surrenders to Guiscard after a grinding siege. The mainland south is now Norman.

In May 1084 Guiscard comes to free Pope Gregory VII from the emperor — and his army sacks Rome for three days. The pope leaves under Norman guard and dies at Salerno.

In 1139–1140 Naples, the last independent city of the south, submits to Roger II. All southern Italy stands under the Palermo crown.

On 18 October 1081 Guiscard crushes Emperor Alexios I beneath the walls of Durrës. Anna Komnene, the emperor's daughter, describes the Normans with fear and admiration.

In autumn 1084 Guiscard takes revenge at sea: his fleet crushes the Venetian-Byzantine squadron off Corfu and retakes the island. His last victory — he dies on Cephalonia in July 1085.

In 1091 Count Roger I lands on Malta and takes it from the Muslims. The island enters Norman Sicily's orbit, where it stays for centuries.

In spring 1097 Bohemond of Taranto, Guiscard's son, swears fealty to Emperor Alexios. The son of the man who beat the emperor at Durrës becomes his vassal — on paper.

In June 1097 the crusaders — Bohemond's Normans among them — take Nicaea. The crusade's first victory, and the last at which Byzantines and crusaders fight together.

On 3 June 1098 Bohemond enters Antioch by treachery and never hands it to the emperor. The Principality of Antioch lives 170 years — the farthest Norman state.

In 1147 an Anglo-Norman crusader fleet, bound for the Holy Land, helps King Afonso take Lisbon. Their chaplain left an account from inside the siege.

In 1148 Roger II's admiral George of Antioch takes Mahdia. A string of African ports follows: the Normans' “kingdom of Africa” lasts a decade.

In August 1185 William II of Sicily's army sacks Thessalonica, Byzantium's second city. Archbishop Eustathios describes the plundering as an eyewitness.