In almost every year since the death of Emperor Basil II, the aristocracy rose up in revolt across the empire, east and west causing the army to move back and forth exposing their borders to raiding parties of Normans, Pechenegs or Turkic horsemen. The empire's holdings in Southern Italy were finally lost to the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond of Taranto, who quickly turned to the weakly held Balkan provinces of Byzantium that were ripe for plunder. In the countryside, there existed a free peasantry unlike in Western Europe. However, the growing power of the aristocracy led to the dismantling of the free peasantry and the enlargement of private estates by the aristocracy, sometimes through purchases but often through intimidation or outright violence. Basil II had been ruthless and successful during his reign at curbing their growing power but after his death, the process recommenced and accelerated. Another issue came in the succession crisis following the death of Basil II brother and successor Constantine VIII. Constantine VIII had no male heirs and as a consequence, the bureaucrats of Constantinople married his daughters Zoe and Theodora to older and incompetent men unfit for rule who were ill-advised and squandered money on trivial things.