The ancient ferocity of this people was a little softened by their settlement; but the bravery which, had made the Danes so formidable was not extinguished in the Normans, nor the spirit of enterprise.

Not long before this period, a private gentleman of Normandy, by his personal bravery, had acquired the kingdom of Naples.
Several others followed his fortunes, who added Sicily to it.

From one end of Europe to the other the Norman name was known, respected, and feared.

Robert, the sixth Duke of Normandy, to expiate some crime which lay heavy upon his conscience, resolved, according to the ideas of that time, upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

It was in vain that his nobility, whom he had assembled to notify this resolution to them, represented to him the miserable state to which his country would be reduced, abandoned by its prince, and uncertain of a legal successor.