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The Words of Bernfrieda: A Chronicle of Hauteville : The Chronicle of the Life of Fredesenda Wife Oftancred of Hauteville and Mother of Robert Guiscard Duke of Apulia and rogi
The Words of Bernfrieda A Chronicle of Hauteville The Chronicle of the Life of Fredesenda Wife Oftancred of Hauteville and Mother of Robert Guiscard Duke of Apulia and rogi Author:Gabriella Brooke "Even now that in spite of my sex I have learned to write as well as any monk, I interrupt my work and stare when Brother Gaufredus begins a new manuscript" The character speaking is the Norman Bernfrieda, daughter of a nobleman and a serf and half-sister and handmaid of the Lady Fredesenda of Hauteville. It is the year 1061, and Bernfrieda and... more » Senda have retired to the Abbey of Santa Eufemia where Bernfrieda has learned to write under the watchful and often critical eye of Brother Gaufredus. Meanwhile Senda's noble children, Robert Guiscard and Rogier of Hauteville, are poised to conquer all of Southern Italy, five years before the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror. When the monk Amatus comes to gather information from Senda about her sons, Bernfrieda realizes that her half-sister will only be a name in the monk's chronicle. Stung by this realization and the open disdain in which Brother Gaufredus, holds all that Senda has accomplished, Bernfrieda decides to write a chronicle of her own to tell "all that Amatus' chronicle will leave out"« less