Note 123 — Chapter XIV

The attention of the adventurous Normans had been called to southern Italy early in the eleventh century by some of their people who, in their wanderings, had been stranded there and had found plenty of opportunities to fight under agreeable conditions for one or another of the local rival princes. From marauding mercenaries, they soon became the ruling race. They extended their conquests from the mainland to Sicily, and by 1140 they had united all southern Italy into a single kingdom. The popes had naturally taken a lively interest in the new and strong power upon the confines of their realms. They skillfully arranged to secure a certain hold upon the growing kingdom by inducing Robert Guiscard, the most famous of the Norman leaders, to recognize the pope as his feudal lord; in 1059 he became the vassal of Nicholas II.