Battle of Civitate [SEP] point in time
Battle of Civitate
The Battle of Civitate was fought on 18 June 1053 in southern Italy, between the Normans, led by the Count of Apulia Humphrey of Hauteville, and a Swabian-Italian-Lombard army, organised by Pope Leo IX and led on the battlefield by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine, and Rudolf, Prince of Benevento. The Norman victory over the allied papal army marked the climax of a conflict between the Norman mercenaries who came to southern Italy in the eleventh century, the de Hauteville family, and the
army were forced to disband and return to Greece via Bari, since their forces were not strong enough to fight the Normans now that the papal forces had been defeated. Argyros may even have been banished from the Empire by Constantine himself.
More importantly, the Battle of Civitate proved to be a turning point in the fortunes of the Normans in Italy, who were able to win a victory despite their differences even among themselves, and solidifying their legitimacy in the process. Not only that, it was the first major victory