In those times, the year of Christ 1070, there passed into Italy Robert Guiscard, duke of the Normans, the which by his prowess and wit did great things, and wrought in the service of Holy Church against the Emperor Henry III., who was persecuting it, and against the Emperor Alexis, and against the Venetians, as we shall make mention hereafter: for the which thing he was made lord over Sicily and Apulia, with the confirmation of Holy Church; and his descendants after him, down to the time of Henry of Suabia, father of Frederick II., were kings and lords thereof. And also in those same times was the worthy and wise Countess Matilda, the which reigned in Tuscany and in Lombardy, and was well-nigh sovereign lady over all, and did many great things in her time for Holy Church, so that it seems to me reasonable and fitting to speak of their beginning and of their state, in this our treatise, forasmuch as they were much mixed up with the doings of our city of Florence through the consequences which followed their doings in Tuscany. And first we will tell of Robert Guiscard, and then of the Countess Matilda, and their beginnings and their doings briefly, returning afterwards to our subject and the deeds of our city of Florence, the which by the increase and the doings of the Florentines began to multiply and to extend the fame of Florence throughout the whole world, more than it had been heretofore; and therefore almost by necessity it behoves us in our treatise to narrate more universally henceforward of the Popes and of the Emperors and of the kings, and of many provinces of the world, the events and things which happened in those times, forasmuch as they have much to do with our subject, and because the aforesaid Emperor Henry III. was the beginner of the scandal between the Church and the Empire, and afterwards the Guelfs and Ghibellines, whence arose the parties of the Empire and of the Church in Italy, the which so grew that all Italy was infected thereby and almost all Europe, and many ills and perils, and destructions and changes have followed thereupon to our city and to the whole world, such as following on with our treatise we shall mention in their times. And we will begin now, at the head of every page to mark the year of our Lord, following on in order of time, to the end that the events of past times may be the more easily looked out in our treatise. Sec. 19.--_Of Robert Guiscard and his descendants, which were kings of Sicily and of Apulia._ [Sidenote: 880-1110 A.D.] [Sidenote: 1078 A.D.] [Sidenote: Cf. Purg. vii. 133-136.] [Sidenote: 1110 A.D.]