*** Welcome to piglix ***

Drengot family


The Drengots were a Norman family of mercenaries, one of the first to head to the Mezzogiorno of Italy to fight in the service of the Lombards. They became the most prominent family after the Hautevilles.

The family came from in Carreaux, near Avesnes-en-Bray, east of Rouen. From Quarrelis or Quadrellis, the Latin for Carreaux, the family gets its alternate name of "de Quarrel." Some sources, however, place the family's origins in Alençon.

The first members of the family known are five brothers. Four of these accompanied their one exiled brother, Osmond, who had murdered one of Duke Richard I of Normandy's hunting companions. Sources diverge as to just who among the brothers was leader on the trip to the south. Orderic Vitalis and William of Jumièges name Osmond. Ralph Glaber names Rudolph. Leo of Ostia, Amatus of Montecassino, and Adhemar of Chabannes name Gilbert Buatère. According to most south Italian sources, this last was designated leader for the Battle of Cannae in 1018. The remaining brothers were Asclettin and Ranulf, probably the younger sons. Some sources, like Glaber, claim that the band of 250 Norman warriors stopped in Rome to meet Pope Benedict VIII. They then moved on to one of the Lombard capitals: Salerno or Capua. From there they joined with Melus of Bari, the leader of the Lombard rebels in Apulia.


...
Wikipedia

...