3Geoffrey the Elder (died September 1100) was an
Italo-Norman nobleman. A nephew of
Robert Guiscard through one of his sisters, he was the count of
Conversano from 1072 and the lord of
Brindisi and
Nardò from 1070, until his death.
According to
Goffredo Malaterra, Geoffrey conquered most of his lands with his own energy (sua strenuitate) and without the help of the Guiscard. Thus, when, in
1067, the Guiscard demanded homage for the castle of Montepeloso, Geoffrey refused. Robert brought him to heel in the subsequent war and Geoffrey did homage. Among the other lands Geoffrey had conquered from the Byzantines were
Polignano and
Monopoli.
Geoffrey joined his cousins
Abelard and
Herman, his brother
Robert, and
Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo in the rebellion of 1079–1082, while the Guiscard was away fighting the
Byzantine Empire in the
Balkans. His brother died in July 1080 and Abelard a year later. While he was besieging
Oria, a city on the
Via Appia between Brindisi and
Taranto, Robert returned at
Otranto and began to march towards him. Geoffrey, though he had numerous troops, fled anyway.
By 1083, Geoffrey was reconciled to Robert Guiscard and accompanied him on his final Byzantine expedition. He was present at the synod held in
Melfi in 1089. He was a patron of the local monasteries.
Geoffrey died, most likely in Brindisi, in 1100 or 1101. He left three sons and a daughter: Robert,
Alexander,
Tancred, and Sybilla, who married
Robert Curthose,
duke of Normandy.