Hiallt

Hiallt

Hiallt

Ancestor of the House of Hauteville

Hiallt (also Hialt and Healthene) was a norseman active around the year 920. He is credited with founding the village of Hauteville (same as Hauteville-la-Guichard?[verification needed]), in Latin Hialtus Villa, in the Contentin region of Normandy.[1][2] The name “Hiallt” might refer to the Scandinavian Hjalti, or it might simply be a legendary eponymous: Hauteville (Altavilla) simply means "high estate" indeed.

Ancestors

According to the genealogy charts in “The British Chronicles” by David Hughes, Hiallt descended from the legendary figures of Holgar “the Dane” and Estrid, daughter of King Gudfred of Denmark.[citation needed]

Descendants

Hiallt is considered an ancestor of Tancred of Hauteville, and thus the founder of the House of Hauteville, which bears his name. This cannot be verified with certainty.[3] Tancred's sons later led the Norman Invasion of southern Italy and they and their descendants ruled powerful states in the Mediterranean region, like the Duchy of Apulia and the Kingdom of Sicily.

References

  1. [1]
    Hill, James S. The place-names of Somerset. St. Stephen's printing works, 1914, Princeton University. Page 256
  2. [2]
    Revue de l'Avranchin et du pays de Granville, Volume 31, Issue 174, Parts 3-4. Société d'archéologie, de littérature, sciences et arts d'Avranches, Mortain, Granville. the University of Michigan.
  3. [3]
    Stanley Ferber, Islam and the Medieval West, vol. 2 (1979), p. 46: "the sons of Tancred of Hauteville-le-Guichard, a petty landowner in Normandy..."
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