William Iron Arm

Who was William Iron Arm?

William Iron Arm was a Norman adventurer who was the founder of the fortunes of the Hauteville family. One of twelve sons of Tancred of Hauteville, he journeyed to the Mezzogiorno with his younger brother Drogo in the first half of the eleventh century, in response to requests for help made by fellow Normans under Rainulf Drengot, count of Aversa.

Between 1038 and 1040, he and other Normans fought in Sicily along with the Lombards as mercenaries for the Byzantine Empire against the Saracens. It was there that he won his nickname "Iron Arm" by single-handedly killing the emir of Syracuse during a sally at the siege of Syracuse. When the Greek general Giorgio Maniace publicly humiliated the Salernitan leader, Arduin, the Lombards withdrew from the campaign, along with the Normans and the Varangian Guard contingent. After Maniace was recalled to Constantinople, the new catapan of Italy, Michael Doukeianos, appointed Arduin the ruler of Melfi. Melfi, however, soon joined other Apulian Lombards in a revolt against Byzantine rule, in which they were supported by William and the Normans. The Byzantines, however, managed to buy off the nominal leaders of the revolt - first Atenulf, Prince of Benevento, and then Argyrus. In September 1042, the Normans elected their own leader, ignoring Arduin. The revolt, originally Lombard, had become Norman in character and leadership.