Does Anyone Know Of Any Historical Battles Or Combat That The Normans Lost?

1. Leeroy Jenkinsy Says

   Anglo-Normans were famously defeated at Bannockburn in 1314 by the Scottish and driven comprehensively out of Scotland. They also suffered a string of defeats in Ireland between 1300-1450 before being driven from all of Ireland to a small 20mile strip known as the Pale, modern day Dublin.

2. Norman D. Landings Says

   Significant Norman defeats were very, very rare… they were genuinely dominant in battle.
   We can see this from the way the whole of Europe adopted the Norman model of armoured, mounted nobility: the medieval Knight.
   In Wales and Ireland, Norman success was limited by the rough country and the guerrilla tactics of the locals. However, when they managed to get into a straight fight, the Normans won. In both countries, the Normans simply conquered as much as they wanted and didn’t bother with the rest. They weren’t ‘defeated’ in any sense.
   Bannockburn was just as much a Norman victory as a defeat: Robert the Bruce was as much Scoto-Norman as Edward was Anglo-Norman.
   Both armies were composed of Scot-Norman or Anglo-Norman leadership and Scots or English rank-&-file. Both nations had adopted the Norman feudal system.
   Some of the notable Scots dynasties – Bruce, Ramsay, Fraser, Ogilvie, Montgomerie, Sinclair, Pollock, Douglas and Gordon – were of Norman origin.
   The example I’d choose is the siege of Dyrrachium, in 1081 – although the Normans unlitmately won, they did suffer a decisive defeat during the campaign.
   Duc Robert Guiscard had obtained Papal authority to make war on the Byzantine Empire – who were Eastern Orthodox Christians. His Norman forces attacked the Byzantine fortified port of Dyrrachium, in modern-day Albania.
   They besieged the city on land and blockaded its harbour from the sea – but Byzantium’s allies, from the city-state of Venice, attacked by sea. The Norman fleet, under Duc Robert’s son Bohemund, was out-manouvred and destroyed., their ships burned using ‘Greek Fire’ weapons.
   At sea, the Normans were nothing special.
   Without their fleet, the Norman army settled down to a land siege of Dyrrachium, which was only partly successful as the city could still be supplied by sea.
   Eventually the Normans took the city by treachery – in 1082 a traitor opened the gates for them. Before that, though, Duc Robert won a spectacular victory when the Byzantine Emperor Alexius led a land army to try and break the siege.
   Hope that helps!

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