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The Norman Conquests of Italy, Sicily, Malta, and ‘Africa’ - six online talks by Professor Alex Metcalfe
Around the same time as the Norman Conquest of England from 1066, Norman-led armies embarked on another series of conquests – in the Mediterranean. Over successive generations, they carved out a unique kingdom and lorded over diverse, multifaith, multilingual peoples of Latins, Greeks, Muslims and Jews. The kingdom’s capital, Palermo, was probably the wealthiest and most populous city in 12th-century Europe, while the kingdom survived as a political unit until Italian Unification of 1861. In this series, Alex Metcalfe offers an overview one of the most remarkable kingdoms of pre-modern Europe.
They take place every Thursday from 8 January to 12 February 2026 at 4.30pm (London) and, including Q&A, will last just under an hour. They are available for viewing for eight weeks after the last episode is streamed (until 9 April 2026).
Talks
For centuries, the ‘Normans in the South’ have divided opinion: for some, they were adventurers, ruthless opportunists and the earliest crusaders; for others, they were innovative, successful and enlightened, ruling over fragmented lands and an unstable population. But whether heroes or villains, this opening talk frames the contexts for the Norman expansion into the Mediterranean. We will meet their leaders and examine their motives for action – as well as their successes and failures.
The vast regions that the Normans ruled in the Mediterranean were conquered in different campaigns over almost a century: at the height of the kingdom, they held most of the lands to the south of Rome; the rich island of Sicily; Malta, and many areas along the coast of what is now Tunisia. In this lecture, we follow the course of the conquests across these regions and examine how and why the Normans were able to rule these lands where many others had failed.
In this talk, we examine one of the most intriguing and important issues of the Norman period: the imposition of their rule over a wide array of peoples with different faiths, laws, languages and cultures. The system they implemented was pioneering and unique, permitting different communities to live under different laws and tax regimes. It was a complicated and highly sophisticated system – but it was also experimental and fragile. We look at how it worked in theory and in practice, and assess how effective it was as a novel, forward-thinking way of ruling in a pre-modern context.
The peoples of the Norman kingdom were as assorted as anywhere in the medieval world: the Normans and others from around France and England formed a small minority – the rest of the population comprised Lombards; northern and southern Italians; Byzantine Greeks; Arabs, Berbers, Muslims and Jews. In this talk, we take a closer look at the astonishing variety of people in the kingdom and the ways in which their differences were reflected by the ‘multicultural’ kings themselves with their lavish palaces and hybrid Byzantine, Romanesque and Islamic cultures, and their working languages of Latin, Greek and Arabic.
The Norman kings were great supporters of the arts, scholarship and learning. Under their patronage, the kingdom has come to be regarded as central to the so-called 12th-century Renaissance and its revival of Classical learning and scholarship that was not simply based on religious scripture and texts. They were also great builders of palaces and castles – many of which survive to the present day. This lecture takes us into these great buildings and presents an explanation of the main academic and intellectual achievements of the kingdom.
Norman power was relatively short-lived – less than 150 years. But its legacy was of longer-lasting importance: the Normans brought about deep-rooted, fundamental and enduring change to the politics, economics, religion, cultures, languages, laws and customs in the central Mediterranean, forming a maritime frontier between Arabic-speaking Muslim Africa and ‘Latin’ Christian Europe. This talk takes a retrospective look at the Normans’ achievement and how, in the era of the crusades, they shaped the Mediterranean in ways that have endured to the present.
Expert speaker
Professor Alex Metcalfe
Professor Alex Metcalfe is a historian of the medieval Mediterranean and Middle East with degrees in Classics, from Oxford, and Arabic, from Leeds. He has published on a wide range of subjects, but is best-known for his work on Sicily, Sardinia, southern Italy, and Tunisia. His books include Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily. Arabic Speakers and the End of Islam and The Norman Conquest of South Italy and Sicily: The Historia Sicula (forthcoming). For many years he was Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University during which time he held research fellowships at Oxford, Cyprus, Krakow, Cagliari, and Venice. He is currently a Research Fellow at LMU Munich.
More tours led by Professor Alex Metcalfe
Frequently asked questions
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Dates & prices
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2026
Date
Speaker
Price
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