Geoffrey of Taranto
Encyclopedia
Geoffrey, Godfrey, or Goffredo (died 1068x1072), called Lofredus in Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

, was an Italo-Norman
Italo-Norman
The Italo-Normans, or Siculo-Normans when referring to Sicily, were the Italian-born descendants of the first Norman conquerors to travel to the southern Italy in the first half of the eleventh century...

 military leader and the first Count of Taranto. He was the second son of Peter I of Trani
Peter I of Trani
Peter I , also known as Petronius , was the first Norman count of Trani. He was one of the most prominent of the twelve leaders of the Norman mercenaries serving Guaimar IV of Salerno. Though it had not yet been conquered from the Byzantine Empire, Peter received Trani in the Normans' division of...

, though of his elder brother, Amicus, nothing is known. He succeeded his father in the territory of Trani
Trani
Trani is a seaport of Apulia, southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, in the new Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani , and 40 km by railway West-Northwest of Bari.- History :...

 and was in control of it in 1064, though the city itself remained with the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

. His younger brother, Peter II
Peter II of Trani
Peter II was the third Italo-Norman count of Trani. He was the youngest of three sons of Peter I; his elder brothers were Amico and Geoffrey....

, took the city from the Byzantines in 1054 and, taking advantage of Geoffrey's absence, took control of the patrimony. Geoffrey married a daughter of Drogo, lord of Mottola
Mottola
Mottola is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, in the Puglia region of southeast Italy.It is situated on a hill in the sub-region of Murgia. It is also called "The Ionian Spy" for its strategic geographical position...

 and Castellaneta
Castellaneta
Castellaneta is a city and comune in the province of Taranto, in the Puglia region of Southern Italy, about 40 km from Taranto. Located in a territory spanning from the Murgia to the Ionian Sea, characterized by numerous gravina ravines, it is part of the Comunità Montana della Murgia...

.

When Count Drogo of Apulia
Drogo of Hauteville
Drogo of Hauteville succeeded his brother, William Iron Arm, with whom he arrived in southern Italy c. 1035, as the leader of the Normans of Apulia....

 was assassinated in 1051, Geoffrey was put in charge of his young son, Richard
Richard of Salerno
Richard of Salerno , who is not to be confused with his homonym cousin Richard of Hauteville, was a participant in the First Crusade and regent of the County of Edessa from 1104 to 1108....

. Geoffrey founded, probably on the site of an existing hermitage, the monastery of Santa Maria di Colonna, populating it with Cassinese monks and building it a defensive tower that still stands.

In May 1063 Geoffrey conquered Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....

, which he eventually made his chief city. He took the title comes
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

(Greek κόμης), as recorded in Lupus Protospatharius
Lupus Protospatharius
Lupus Protospatharius Barensis was the reputed author of the Chronicon rerum in regno Neapolitano gestarum , a precise history of the Mezzogiorno from 805 to 1102. He has only been named as the author since the seventeenth century...

 (LIX.34, 38–9) and the Strategikon of Kekaumenos
Strategikon of Kekaumenos
The Strategikon of Kekaumenos is a late 11th century Byzantine manual offering advice on warfare and the handling of public and domestic affairs.The book was composed between 1075 and 1078 by its author, a Byzantine general of partly Armenian descent...

(116.3). In 1064, according to the Anonymus Barensis (§152), he took Otranto
Otranto
Otranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce , in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula. The Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and Italy with Albania...

 (Idrontum) through a ruse after several failed attempts to take it by force. The city was being defended by Malapetzes (Malapezza) with an army of Varangians
Varangians
The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...

 and Rus'. His niece lived in an old house against the city walls. Geoffrey got in contact with this niece, sent her gifts, and promised to marry her if she allowed his Normans to enter the city through her house. Using ropes during the night, she helped the enemy troops in. On finding the city lost, Malapetzes fled by sea, leaving behind his wife and children.

In 1066 Geoffrey made the first Norman attempt on the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 (Romania). Assembling a large army for the task he was met near Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

 and stopped by Michael Maurikas, who had come by ship with a Varangian army (Wolff, 19–20).

On account of the rivalry between Peter II and Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard
Robert d'Hauteville, known as Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, from Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, often rendered the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily, the Fox, or the Weasel was a Norman adventurer conspicuous in the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily...

, Geoffrey returned to Trani and took charge of it. He died there not long after, probably in 1068. He left a son, Richard
Richard of Andria
Richard was Bishop of Andria, Italy. He was appointed to the see of Andria by felllow Englishman Pope Adrian IV. In 1179, Richard was one of the Bishops present at the Eleventh Ecumenical Council held by Pope Alexander III. He remained in his office until his death, a period of well over 40 years....

, as his heir, but Peter quickly dispossessed him of Trani, leaving him only Andria
Andria
-Places:Italy*Andria, a city in the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani*Roman Catholic Diocese of Andria, a Roman Catholic diocese...

.

In Amatus of Montecassino
Amatus of Montecassino
Amatus of Montecassino , a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Montecassino is one of three Italo-Norman chroniclers, the others being William of Apulia and Goffredo Malaterra...

there is a reference to Peter II's brother Falgutce, but this must be a copyist's error, as no such brother is otherwise known and the event with which he is associated occurred after Geoffrey's death.

External links

I Conti di Lesina I Conti di Trani Prosopography of the Byzantine World
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