Sack of Rome (1084)
DateMay 1084
Location
Rome, Italy
Result Italo-Norman troops from Apulia force the Imperial troops to retreat and then loot the city of Rome. The city is set on fire.
Belligerents
Holy Roman Empire County of Apulia and Calabria
Commanders and leaders
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor Robert Guiscard

The sack of Rome of May 1084 was a Norman sack, the result of the pope's call for aid from the duke of Apulia, Robert Guiscard.[1]

Pope Gregory VII was besieged in the Castel Sant'Angelo by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV in June 1083. He held out and called for aid from Guiscard, who was then fighting the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos in the Balkans. He returned, however, to the Italian Peninsula and marched north with 36,000 men. He entered Rome and forced Henry to retreat, but a riot of the citizens led to a three days sack, after which Guiscard escorted the pope to the Lateran.[2] The Normans had mainly pillaged the old city, which was then one of the richest cities in Italy. After days of unending violence, the Romans rose up and caused the Normans to set fire to the city. Many of the buildings of Rome were gutted on the Capitoline and Palatine hills along with the area between the Colosseum and the Lateran. In the end the ravaged Roman populace succumbed to the Normans.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hamilton, Louis I. (2003-04-01). "Memory, Symbol, and Arson: Was Rome "Sacked" in 1084?". Speculum. 78 (2): 378–399. doi:10.1017/S0038713400168617. ISSN 0038-7134. S2CID 161684527.
  2. ↑ Loud, Graham (2014-07-10). The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Northern Conquest. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-317-90023-8.
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