Currently reading Dan Jones' excellent new book Powers and Thrones. He talks of Pope Urban II election in 1088 and mentioned that Rome had been recently attacked by Normans in southern Italy at the time. Im just curious if these are the same Normans as William the Conqueror and his people? I wasn't aware that they settled or existed in the south of Italy.
The Normans of southern Italy were not associated with William the Conqueror. They were mostly the followers of the de Hauteville family, who had gone to southern Italy before William conquered England and acted independently of the Normans of Normandy or England. A few previous answers related to this:
How and why did the Normans end up conquering southern Italy? by u/AlviseFalier
To what extent was the Norman conquest of Sicily in the 11th/12th century considered a crusade or Holy War? by u/AlanWithTea
What was the relationship (if there was one) between the various Norman states of the 11-12th Centuries? also by u/AlanWithTea