Alexander was the second count of Conversano

Conversano

Conversano is an ancient town and comune in the province of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located 30 km south-east of Bari, 7 km from the Adriatic coast, at 219 m above sea-level....

 (1085–1132), the son and successor of Geoffrey the Elder

Geoffrey, Count of Conversano

Geoffrey the Elder was an Italo-Norman nobleman. A nephew of Robert Guiscard through one of his sisters, he was the count of Conversano from 1072 and the lord of Brindisi and Nardò from 1070, until his death....

.

Alexander, with his brother Tancred

Tancred of Conversano

Tancred of Conversano, the youngest son of Geoffrey, Count of Conversano, became the count of Brindisi on his father's death .Tancred's elder brother Alexander succeeded their father as count of Conversano...

, was a constant thorn in the side of Roger II of Sicily

Roger II of Sicily

Roger II was King of Sicily, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, later became Duke of Apulia and Calabria , then King of Sicily...

. He took part in a civil war that broke out in Bari

Bari

Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

. Risone, the archbishop of the city, was murdered (1117) and the princess of Taranto, Constance of France

Constance of France

Constance of France was the daughter of King Philip I of France and Bertha of Holland. She was a member of the House of Capet and was princess of Antioch from her second marriage and Countess of Champagne from her first marriage. She was regent during the minority of her son.-Family:Her mother was...

, was imprisoned at Giovinazzo

Giovinazzo

Giovinazzo is a port city situated on the Adriatic coast in the region of Apulia, southern Italy. Giovinazzo lies 18 km WNW of the provincial capital of Bari, and is adjacent to the city ofMolfetta.-History:...

 (1119) by Grimoald Alferanites, the prince of Bari, and Alexander.

After Roger was defeated at the Battle of Nocera

Battle of Nocera

The Battle of Nocera or Scafati was the first major battle of Roger II of Sicily and one of two of his major defeats at the hands of Count Ranulf of Alife.-Background:...

 in 1132, Tancred returned to the Mezzogiorno

Mezzogiorno

The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...

 and entered into open rebellion again, taking the cities of Montepeloso and Acerenza

Acerenza

Acerenza is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.-History:With its strategic position 800 m above sea-level, Acerenza has been sacked by a series of invaders....

, with the support of their populations. He raised a force with his brother Alexander, Count Godfrey of Andria, Count Ranulf of Alife, and Prince Robert II of Capua

Robert II of Capua

Robert II was the count of Aversa and the prince of Capua from 1127 until his death .He was the only son and successor of Jordan II of Capua...

. Roger crossed the Straits of Messina with a large force and Alexander was so afraid that he abandoned his city of Matera to his son, Geoffrey the Younger, and fled to the court of Ranulf. After Roger's successfully besieged Matera, Alexander, deeply grieved, fled to Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

. He was deprived of his fief and unable to return home. He tried to meet up with the Emperor Lothair II, but was set upon by thieves in a forest. According to Alexander of Telese

Alexander of Telese

Alexander of Telese was an Italian chronicler and historian, and the abbot of San Salvatore, near Telese, in southern Italy from before 1127 to before November 1143....

, he was left in the town of Avlona very poor.

In 1142, near the end of his life, he appears as an envoy along with Robert of Capua of Conrad III of Germany

Conrad III of Germany

Conrad III was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.-Life and reign:...

 to the Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus. Their mission was the arrangement of a marriage between Conrad's sister-in-law Bertha of Sulzbach

Bertha of Sulzbach

Bertha of Sulzbach was the first wife and Empress of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus.-Family:...

 and John's son Manuel. This marriage sealed an alliance between the two empire, Holy Roman and Byzantine, against Roger of Sicily.

On the same day in 1135 that he made his son Alfonso

Alfonso of Hauteville

Alfonso of Hauteville , third son of Roger II of Sicily and Elvira of Castile, was the prince of Capua from 1135 to his death.He was named after his maternal grandfather, Alfonso VI of Castile...

 prince of Capua, Roger made his brother-in-law Robert I of Basunvilla, "a man in the flower of his youth", as Alexander of Telese says, "both affable and most active in knightly deeds", count of Conversano.

Sources

• Lexikon de Mittelalters.
• Norwich, John Julius
  John Julius Norwich
  John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
  
  . The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  , 1967.
• Alexander of Telese, translated by G. A. Loud. The Deeds Done by Roger of Sicily. Introduction and Books One, Two, Three, and Four