Well, it's a widely known fact that before creating the order of the Templar knights, some mastermind of the catholic church made a secret pact with Norman leaders, as the Normans showed quite a religious zeal.
Let see the time frame.
Conquest of England : 1066
Conquest of arab controlled Sicily : 1061-1091
Malta = captured in 1091
The Normans were also active in Spain, to weaken the muslims there and relieve pressure on the Western catholic countries.
In the meantime, in Byzantium, Normans were quite active. One of the first Norman mercenaries to serve as a Byzantine general was Hervé in the 1050s. By then however there were already Norman mercenaries serving as far away as Trebizond and Georgia. They were based at Malatya and Edessa, under the Byzantine duke of Antioch, Isaac Comnenus. In the 1060s, one Robert Crispin led the Normans of Edessa against the Turks.
From 1073 to 1074, 8,000 of the 20,000 troops of the Armenian general Philaretus Brachamius were Normans formerly of Oursel led by Raimbaud.
And in 1096, during the first Crusade, Bohemand of Taranto and his nephew Tancred were key leaders, of Normans origin.
And later, the first templars were in majority Normans.
All this shows that it was a conspiracy extend on many years, to seize England and be sure it will be later on the crusaders side, then seize Malta, Sicily, to serve as an operating base and increase the control of the catholic on the Mediterranean sea, send advanced Norman elements in disguise of mercenaries to start reconnaissance and fighting in Armenia, and weaken the turks there... All this to strike the final blow, with the first crusade, and take back Jerusalem, and create the Templars knights soon after.
