Italo-Normans in the context of "County of Sicily"

Simon (fl. 1162) was the Norman Count of Syracuse and a member of the Hauteville family. He may be an illegitimate son of Roger II of Sicily, but more likely a son of Henry, Count of Paterno, the brother-in-law of Roger I. He was probably a descendant of his predecessor Tancred.

In 1162, when Frederick Barbarossa was seeking allies for a planned invasion of the Kingdom of Sicily, he made a treaty with the Republic of Genoa, offering them the entire Ligurian coast and the lands of Simon in Sicily. These lands included the cities of Syracuse and Noto and 250 knight's fees (caballariae) in the fertile plain around Noto, the Val di Noto. When the Emperor Henry VI reissued his father's charter to Genoa on 30 May 1191, he retained the promise of Simon's lands, even though Simon was by then dead.

Tancred of Galilee (also Tancred the Marquis; c. 1075 – 5 or 12 December 1112) was an Italian nobleman of Frankish origin, counted amongst the four main leaders of the First Crusade. He is credited as the first Christian to enter Jerusalem after its conquest in 1099. Present at the foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Tancred became Prince of Galilee and regent of the Principality of Antioch in his uncle Bohemond's behalf. He then married princess Cecilie of France, thus becoming son-in-law to King Philip I of the Franks, and brother-in-law to King Fulk of Jerusalem (Cecilie's half-brother).

Despite his usual misidentification as an Italo-Norman, it is well established that Tancred's link to the Norman House of Hauteville was solely through his mother Emma (a sister of Bohemond I of Antioch). His long debated paternal lineage, on the other hand, has since been placed in the Northern-Italian ruling house of the Aleramids, a family of Frankish origin.

Roger Borsa (1060/1061 – 22 February 1111) was the Norman Duke of Apulia and Calabria and effective ruler of southern Italy from 1085 until his death.

The Battle of Dyrrhachium took place on October 18, 1081 between the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), and the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria. The battle was fought outside the city of Dyrrhachium (present-day Durrës in Albania), the major Byzantine stronghold in the western Balkans, and ended in a Norman victory.

Following the Norman conquest of Byzantine Italy and Saracen Sicily, the Byzantine emperor, Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078), betrothed his son to Robert Guiscard's daughter. When Michael was deposed, Robert took this as an excuse to invade the Byzantine Empire in 1081. His army laid siege to Dyrrhachium, but his fleet was defeated by the Venetians. On October 18, the Normans engaged a Byzantine army under Alexios I Komnenos outside Dyrrhachium. The battle began with the Byzantine right wing routing the Norman left wing, which broke and fled. Varangian troops joined in the pursuit of the fleeing Normans, but became separated from the main force and were massacred. Norman knights attacked the Byzantine centre and routed it, causing the bulk of the Byzantine army to rout.

Monforte San Giorgio (Sicilian: Munforti) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 180 kilometres (110 mi) east of Palermo and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) west of Messina.

It is home to the remains of a castle built by the local Orthodox monks to resist the Arab attacks. Later it was used by the Normans and the royal houses of Hohenstaufen and Anjou.