Norman Centuries | A Norman History Podcast by Lars Brownworth

The Principality of Antioch outlasted the Norman Kingdom of Sicily by a century, and its founder by nearly two. This unlikely survivor was a testament to the restless Norman Spirit which had carr...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/20-the-norman-achievement.mp3

The First Crusade fell like a present into Bohemond's lap. Italy wasn't big enough for his ambitions (especially with his uncle blocking him at every turn) and now here was an opportunity to win ...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/19-bohemond-part-2.mp3

A great father can be both a blessing and a curse, and no one was more aware of that than Bohemond de Hauteville. The first-born son of the adventurer Robert Guiscard, Bohemond spent most of his ...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/18-bohemond-part-1.mp3

Frederick II was the most polarizing figure to rule as king of Sicily. To some he was the antichrist - a heretical monster whose harem and open contempt of Christianity was the scandal of civiliz...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/17-stupor-mundi.mp3

Tancred of Lecce came to the throne of Sicily in its darkest hour. Mocked by his critics as the 'Monkey King', he was weakened by civil and religious unrest, and faced invasion by the mighty Germ...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/16-tancred-of-lecce.mp3

William II presided over a golden age of internal peace and prosperity, and when he died suddenly in the flower of his youth, he was mourned as no other king of Sicily. Yet, while he may have bee...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/15-william-the-good.mp3

If Roger II had been the 'baptized Sultan', his son William forgot the water. Despised by his legendary father and never intended for the throne, William the Bad dedicated his life to the comfort...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/14-william-the-bad.mp3

In the Spring of 1133 the new Norman Kingdom of Sicily seemed about to be shattered. Roger II, its creator and first king had backed the anti-Pope Anacletus II to gain his crown and in the proces...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/13-rogerios-rex.mp3

Roger II was never supposed to inherit his father's possessions. He was the youngest of 18 children, and only five when the Great Count died. The nobility dutifully pledged their allegiance but t...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/12-rise-of-a-king.mp3

Roger de Hauteville was a strange conqueror. The youngest of twelve sons he was the last to come to Italy and treated as the least capable of the siblings by a jealous Guiscard. His first raid in...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/11-the-great-count.mp3

By 1071 Robert Guiscard had risen to the height of power in Italy. The grumbling Lombards had been forced to grovel before him, the proud Norman barons recognized him as their unquestioned lord, ...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/10-the-byzantine-wars.mp3

Robert Guiscard arrived in Italy as a simple knight, hoping to benefit from his brother's wealth and power. Instead he found his path blocked at every turn by petty jealousy and was sent off to r...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/09-the-rise-of-robert-guiscard.mp3

In Duke Richard II's Normandy an impoverished knight named Tancred de Hauteville struggled to provide for his twelve sons. The eldest of them - William - declined his inheritance and headed to so...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/08-william-iron-arm-audible.mp3

King Harold wanted nothing more than a peaceful reign, but was destined to spend his time on the throne preparing for war. He had been crowned under the threat of a foreign invasion and had to fe...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/07-after-hastings-audible.mp3

England on the eve of the Conquest was torn between the old King Edward the Confessor and the powerful house of Godwin. With no clear heir apparent chosen, a predatory Normandy and the terrifying...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/06-the-two-harolds.mp3

The young Duke William seemed destined not to survive his childhood. Orphaned before he was ten, he became a plaything of powerful nobles as one by one his guardians were killed off. Normandy des...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/05-william-the-conqueror.mp3

The reign of Robert I began under the dark suspicion of murder and descended into chaos as the young Duke struggled for control. Dogged by rumors of fratricide and a papal excommunication, he car...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/04-magnificent-devil.mp3

At the start of Richard II's reign northern Europe was once again subjected to a wave of Viking attacks. The young Duke was faced with the question of what to do with his distant Norse brethren. ...

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With the death of Rollo and his son, Normandy seemed poised on the brink of disaster. Its nobles were in open revolt and the King of France had seized the capital of Rouen. The legitimate heir, R...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/02-richard-the-fearless.mp3

They were the great success story of the Middle Ages, a footloose band of individual adventurers who appeared out of nowhere to blaze across the face of Dark Age Europe. In the course of two cent...

http://www.normancenturies.com/media/01-rollo-and-the-viking-age.mp3