INTRODUCTION. 5 
To these miseries were added the attempts of the 
emperors of the east to recover their Italian do- 
minions. The dissensions and contests of the Lom- 
bard princes themselves were unceasing, and the 
destructive practice of dividing their dominions 
amongst their sons had portioned out the country 
into a vast number of independent states *. 
A country so distracted and weakened was an 
easy conquest to the Normans. The sons of Tancred 
of Hauteville arrived in 1035, and were received 
with kindness by Guimar the fourth, the prince of 
Salerno. As the allies of the Lombards, they at first 
attacked only the Greeks and the Arabians. Robert 
Guiscard, to establish his power by an alliance with 
the Lombard princes, having divorced his first wife 
Alverada, married Sicelgaita, the sister of Gisulf the 
second, who had succeeded his father Guimar. A 
quarrel, followed by a war, ensued between the 
brothers-in-law. Robert besieged Salerno, took the 
city, made Gisulf a prisoner, and possessed himself 
of the principality, which was thus united to the 
dukedom of Apulia in 1075. By this and other 
acquisitions, the Norman power at length extended 
over the whole of what now constitutes the kingdom 
of Naples and Sicily. Robert Guiscard was suc- 
3 Gian, vol. i. p. 444. 
