- Serlo II of Hauteville
Serlo II (also "Sarlo", "Serlone" in Italian and "Serlon" in French), son and namesake of
Serlo of Hauteville and grandson ofTancred of Hauteville , went to seek his fortunes in theMezzogiorno along with his numerous uncles and cousins, following Roger around 1056, for he is found inCalabria in 1060.He joined Roger's expedition to
Sicily in 1060 and, the next year, he routed theSaracens atCape Farò , preventing their retreat toMessina . This expedition ended, however, in failure. Serlo accompanied Roger on his 1065 expedition as well, and there he was one of the commanders, being given charge of holding the town ofCerami when the Saracens surprised them there. He was holding off reinforcements from the central stronghold ofEnna when, in 1071,Palermo itself fell. In 1072, he and his small band of followers were ambushed near Nicosia by a large Saracen army. They managed to climb to the flat top of a large rock, where they fought to the last man. The rock was commemorated with a large carving of a cross and was remembered as the "Pietra di Serlone", "Serlo's Rock", until it was demolished in the 1960s by a construction firm. [http://www.netsword.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000273.html]He was made lord of
Gerace ,Serrata ,Surito , andCerami soon before his death, but he never took up control of his fiefs. He was married to Altruda, daughter of Rudolf, count ofBoiano , and had two children: Serlo III and Eliusa. His widow re-married toIngelmarius .
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