Death of Robert Guiscard on Cephalonia

July 17, 1085

The red-bearded Norman conqueror of southern Italy, in the middle of his second Byzantine campaign, died of fever on the Greek island. He had failed to overthrow Alexios but had carved out a durable Norman state in the western Balkans. His son Bohemond would take up the Byzantine quarrel, eventually diverting it into the First Crusade and winning himself the principality of Antioch.