Amicus of Giovinazzo
In 1074–75, Amicus invaded Croatia, more specifically Dalmatia (theme), in support of the Byzantines in a dispute with the Croatian king.
He captured the king, Petar Krešimir IV and probably intended to carve out for himself a principality there, but he was defeated by the Republic of Venice and returned to Italy.
[2] Amicus acquired lands in several places across southern Italy, as well as the lordships of Giovinazzo, Molfetta, Spinazzola and Terlizzi.
According to the Anonymous Chronicle of Bari, Amicus entered the small coastal town of Giovinazzo in 1068,[b] a euphemistic way of saying he conquered it from the Byzantines.
That he did not, however, possess it at the start of the rebellion of 1067 is suggested by the fact that the Norman chronicler Amatus of Montecassino does not refer to him by any territory, but simply as Ami de Galtier, that is, Amicus son of Walter.
[9] At some point in the next decade, Amicus built a wall around Spinazzola, as the chronicle William of Apulia notes when recording the duke's capture of the town in 1080.
[4] On 5 September 1073, Amicus founded and made a donation to the church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Terlizzi, which later became the cathedral.
[c] The witnesses present were his vassals Bernard Lautard and Azo, the notary Melo and the former Byzantine tourmarches Pantaleon.
The Anonymous Chronicle of Bari has it beginning, under the leadership of Amicus' father-in-law Joscelin of Molfetta, in 1064, but there is little indication of military activity between that year and 1067.
[4] Among the other rebels were Joscelin, as well as Roger Toutebove and Guiscard's own disaffected nephews, Count Geoffrey of Conversano and the dispossessed Abelard.
The beginning of the Siege of Bari in August 1068 suggests that the revolt had collapsed early that year, to allow enough time for Guiscard to prepare a major military operation against the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy.
[4] Following their defeat, Joscelin and Roger Toutebove fled to Constantinople, while Amicus and Guiscard's nephews were pardoned, losing only a few lands.
[4] The cause of the second revolt was Guiscard's order to Peter II to hand over Taranto, which he was governing on behalf of his young nephew, Richard, son of Geoffrey.
The rebellion was also joined by Abelard's half-brother Herman, the Calabrian baron Robert Areng and Count Richard of Monte Sant'Angelo.
Herman was captured during the revolt, but Abelard remained defiant in Calabria and did not make peace with the duke until early 1078.
[18] Amicus activity in Croatia at the coastal part of the region Dalmatia, during the period from the fall of Petar Krešimir IV (d. 1074) to the coronation of Demetrius Zvonimir (1075),[19][20] in the scholarship was initially explained as an involvement on the behalf of the Holy See against Petar Krešimir IV due to supposed antagonism among the local clergy towards church reforms.
Pope Gregory VII allegedly encouraged the expedition of Amicus to remove Slavac and restore the Latin rite.
[19][22] At the time, the papal legate to Croatia was Gerard, who, as the archbishop of Siponto, was almost a neighbour of Amicus in southern Italy.
Having been recently deprived of his lordship of Giovinazzo, Amicus was probably easily persuaded to make his fortune in Dalmatia, promised with a land or a principality of his own as a reward.
[23] Modern historigraphy rejects such older theorizations,[22][24] because Petar Krešimir IV was loyal to the Holy See and church reforms.
The Miracula Sancti Christophori of Bishop Juraj Koštica, written towards 1308, reports that "a large group of Varangians"[d] assaulted Rab.
[33][34] A letter of Pope Gregory VII to Stephen II, bishop of Zadar, dated to November 1074, also mentions the capture of Petar Krešimir by Amicus.
[23] In a letter to Sweyn II of Denmark on 25 January 1075,[35] Gregory VII writes that an unnamed Danish bishop had intimated that Sweyn might be willing to send one of his sons with an army to assist the Roman church against its vulgar and cowardly heretic enemies (Normans) in a land which Gregory does not name but which was almost certainly Croatia.
[39] In 1078, Robert provoked a third revolt when he demanded an aid (auxilium) from his barons for the dowry of his daughter Gersent, betrothed to Hugh, son of Azzo II, marquis of Este.
[4] Amicus appears to have been recognised as the senior rebel, since William of Apulia labels him the "most learned (experienced) count and ally".
In 1080 it came to an end and private documents from Amicus' domains (and Peter's) are dated from then on by the regnal year of "most invincible Lord Robert, duke of Italy, Calabria and Sicily".
[11] Having made his peace, which turned out to be permanent, Amicus took part in Robert Guiscard's attack on the Byzantine Empire in 1081, which culminated in the fall of Dyrrhachium in February 1082 after an eight-month siege.
Anna records that Amicus, leading a "formation of infantry and cavalry"—his entire wing—"struck near to the extremity of the battle line of Nabites", one of the Varangian generals.
Having in effect acquired Molfetta through Godfrey's mother, Amicus was able to pass it on to his son despite the loss of his other lands through confiscation for rebellion.
