is an event most romantic in its origin, and in its consequences most
important both to Italy and the Eastern empire. The broken provinces of
the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, were exposed to every invader,
and every sea and land were invaded by the adventurous spirit of the
Scandinavian pirates. After a long indulgence of rapine and slaughter,
a fair and ample territory was accepted, occupied, and named, by
the Normans of France: they renounced their gods for the God of the
Christians; and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves the
vassals of the successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savage
fierceness which they had brought from the snowy mountains of Norway was
refined, without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companions
of Rollo insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the manners,
language, and gallantry, of the French nation; and in a martial age, the
Normans might claim the palm of valor and glorious achievements. Of the
fashionable superstitions, they embraced with ardor the pilgrimages of
Rome, Italy, and the Holy Land. In this active devotion, the minds and
bodies were invigorated by exercise: danger was the incentive, novelty
the recompense; and the prospect of the world was decorated by wonder,
credulity, and ambitious hope. They confederated for their mutual
defence; and the robbers of the Alps, who had been allured by the garb
of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm of a warrior. In one of
these pious visits to the cavern of Mount Garganus in Apulia, which had
been sanctified by the apparition of the archangel Michael, they were
accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, but who soon revealed himself
as a rebel, a fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name
was Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt,
was compelled to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The
bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited his
confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more to the
promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth demonstrated the
justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the inheritance of the brave,
the fruitful land which was oppressed by effeminate tyrants. On their
return to Normandy, they kindled a spark of enterprise, and a small but
intrepid band was freely associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They
passed the Alps by separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but
in the neighborhood of Rome they were saluted by the chief of Bari, who
supplied the more indigent with arms and horses, and instantly led them
to the field of action. In the first conflict, their valor prevailed;
but in the second engagement they were overwhelmed by the numbers and
military engines of the Greeks, and indignantly retreated with their
faces to the enemy. The unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at
the court of Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native
and their promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of Italy,
and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To that formidable
sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples, alternately
appealed in their domestic quarrels; the superior spirit and discipline
of the Normans gave victory to the side which they espoused; and their
cautious policy observed the balance of power, lest the preponderance
of any rival state should render their aid less important, and their
service less profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp in the
depth of the marshes of Campania: but they were soon endowed by the
liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and permanent
seat. Eight miles from his residence, as a bulwark against Capua, the
town of Aversa was built and fortified for their use; and they enjoyed
as their own the corn and fruits, the meadows and groves, of that
fertile district. The report of their success attracted every year new
swarms of pilgrims and soldiers: the poor were urged by necessity; the
rich were excited by hope; and the brave and active spirits of Normandy
were impatient of ease and ambitious of renown. The independent standard
of Aversa afforded shelter and encouragement to the outlaws of the
province, to every fugitive who had escaped from the injustice or
justice of his superiors; and these foreign associates were quickly
assimilated in manners and language to the Gallic colony. The first
leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the origin of society,
preÎminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit.
Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been
anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however
strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly
armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and
disgrace to the Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troops
were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the
policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody
of their women, but with the command of their men After a reign of two
hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. The emir
disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose against
the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel
was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival
brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In every service of
danger the Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred _knights_,
or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and
interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of
Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union
of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the island was guarded to the
water's edge. The Normans led the van and the Arabs of Messina felt the
valor of an untried foe. In a second action the emir of Syracuse was
unhorsed and transpierced by the _iron arm_ of William of Hauteville.
In a third engagement, his intrepid companions discomfited the host of
sixty thousand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of
the pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the historian
may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It is, however,
true, that they essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who
reduced thirteen cities, and the greater part of Sicily, under
the obedience of the emperor. But his military fame was sullied by
ingratitude and tyranny. In the division of the spoils, the deserts
of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten; and neither their avarice nor
their pride could brook this injurious treatment. They complained by
the mouth of their interpreter: their complaint was disregarded; their
interpreter was scourged; the sufferings were _his_; the insult and
resentment belonged to _those_ whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet
they dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to
the Italian continent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized in their
indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of
the debt. Above twenty years after the first emigration, the Normans
took the field with no more than seven hundred horse and five hundred
foot; and after the recall of the Byzantine legions from the Sicilian
war, their numbers are magnified to the amount of threescore thousand
men. Their herald proposed the option of battle or retreat; "of
battle," was the unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stoutest
warriors, with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground the horse of
the Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult was
concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive battles they
were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. In the
plains of CannÊ, the Asiatics fled before the adventurers of France;
the duke of Lombardy was made prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a
new dominion; and the four places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and
Tarentum, were alone saved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes.
From this Êra we may date the establishment of the Norman power, which
soon eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts were chosen
by the popular suffrage; and age, birth, and merit, were the motives of
their choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were appropriated
to their use; and each count erected a fortress in the midst of his
lands, and at the head of his vassals. In the centre of the province,
the common habitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and
citadel of the republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to
each of the twelve counts: and the national concerns were regulated
by this military senate. The first of his peers, their president and
general, was entitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was conferred
on William of the iron arm, who, in the language of the age, is styled a
lion in battle, a lamb in society, and an angel in council. The manners
of his countrymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary and national
historian. "The Normans," says Malaterra, "are a cunning and revengeful
people; eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their hereditary
qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless they are curbed by the
restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of nature and passion.
Their princes affect the praises of popular munificence; the people
observe the medium, or rather blond the extremes, of avarice and
prodigality; and in their eager thirst of wealth and dominion, they
despise whatever they possess, and hope whatever they desire. Arms and
horses, the luxury of dress, the exercises of hunting and hawking are
the delight of the Normans; but, on pressing occasions, they can endure
with incredible patience the inclemency of every climate, and the toil
and absence of a military life."
Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.--Part II.
The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two empires; and,
according to the policy of the hour, they accepted the investiture of
their lands, from the sovereigns of Germany or Constantinople. But
the firmest title of these adventurers was the right of conquest: they
neither loved nor trusted; they were neither trusted nor beloved: the
contempt of the princes was mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives
was mingled with hatred and resentment. Every object of desire, a
horse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the
strangers; and the avarice of their chiefs was only colored by the more
specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts were sometimes
joined in the league of injustice: in their domestic quarrels they
disputed the spoils of the people: the virtues of William were buried in
his grave; and Drogo, his brother and successor, was better qualified to
lead the valor, than to restrain the violence, of his peers. Under the
reign of Constantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence,
of the Byzantine court, attempted to relieve Italy from this adherent
mischief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians; and Argyrus, the
son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with the most lofty titles
and the most ample commission. The memory of his father might recommend
him to the Normans; and he had already engaged their voluntary service
to quell the revolt of Maniaces, and to avenge their own and the public
injury. It was the design of Constantine to transplant the warlike
colony from the Italian provinces to the Persian war; and the son of
Melo distributed among the chiefs the gold and manufactures of Greece,
as the first-fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts were baffled by
the sense and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia: his gifts, or at least
his proposals, were rejected; and they unanimously refused to relinquish
their possessions and their hopes for the distant prospect of Asiatic
fortune. After the means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to
compel or to destroy: the Latin powers were solicited against the common
enemy; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the two
emperors of the East and West. The throne of St. Peter was occupied by
Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, of a temper most apt to deceive himself
and the world, and whose venerable character would consecrate with
the name of piety the measures least compatible with the practice of
religion. His humanity was affected by the complaints, perhaps the
calumnies, of an injured people: the impious Normans had interrupted the
payment of tithes; and the temporal sword might be lawfully unsheathed
against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the censures of
the church. As a German of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo had free
access to the court and confidence of the emperor Henry the Third;
and in search of arms and allies, his ardent zeal transported him from
Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the Tyber. During these hostile
preparations, Argyrus indulged himself in the use of secret and guilty
weapons: a crowd of Normans became the victims of public or private
revenge; and the valiant Drogo was murdered in a church. But his
spirit survived in his brother Humphrey, the third count of Apulia. The
assassins were chastised; and the son of Melo, overthrown and wounded,
was driven from the field, to hide his shame behind the walls of Bari,
and to await the tardy succor of his allies.
But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish war; the mind
of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of repassing
the Alps with a German army, was accompanied only by a guard of seven
hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine. In his long progress
from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Italians
was enlisted under the holy standard: the priest and the robber slept in
the same tent; the pikes and crosses were intermingled in the front;
and the martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the order of
march, of encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apulia could muster
in the field no more than three thousand horse, with a handful of
infantry: the defection of the natives intercepted their provisions and
retreat; and their spirit, incapable of fear, was chilled for a moment
by superstitious awe. On the hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without
disgrace or reluctance before their spiritual father. But the pope was
inexorable; his lofty Germans affected to deride the diminutive stature
of their adversaries; and the Normans were informed that death or exile
was their only alternative. Flight they disdained, and, as many of them
had been three days without tasting food, they embraced the assurance
of a more easy and honorable death. They climbed the hill of Civitella,
descended into the plain, and charged in three divisions the army of
the pope. On the left, and in the centre, Richard count of Aversa, and
Robert the famous Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and pursued the
Italian multitudes, who fought without discipline, and fled without
shame. A harder trial was reserved for the valor of Count Humphrey, who
led the cavalry of the right wing. The Germans have been described as
unskillful in the management of the horse and the lance, but on foot
they formed a strong and impenetrable phalanx; and neither man, nor
steed, nor armor, could resist the weight of their long and two-handed
swords. After a severe conflict, they were encompassed by the squadrons
returning from the pursuit; and died in the ranks with the esteem of
their foes, and the satisfaction of revenge. The gates of Civitella
were shut against the flying pope, and he was overtaken by the pious
conquerors, who kissed his feet, to implore his blessing and the
absolution of their sinful victory. The soldiers beheld in their enemy
and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we may suppose the policy
of the chiefs, it is probable that they were infected by the popular
superstition. In the calm of retirement, the well-meaning pope deplored
the effusion of Christian blood, which must be imputed to his account:
he felt, that he had been the author of sin and scandal; and as his
undertaking had failed, the indecency of his military character was
universally condemned. With these dispositions, he listened to the
offers of a beneficial treaty; deserted an alliance which he had
preached as the cause of God; and ratified the past and future conquests
of the Normans. By whatever hands they had been usurped, the provinces
of Apulia and Calabria were a part of the donation of Constantine and
the patrimony of St. Peter: the grant and the acceptance confirmed
the mutual claims of the pontiff and the adventurers. They promised
to support each other with spiritual and temporal arms; a tribute or
quitrent of twelve pence was afterwards stipulated for every ploughland;
and since this memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained
above seven hundred years a fief of the Holy See.
The pedigree of Robert of Guiscard is variously deduced from the
peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the pride and
ignorance of a Grecian princess; from the dukes, by the ignorance and
flattery of the Italian subjects. His genuine descent may be ascribed to
the second or middle order of private nobility. He sprang from a race of
_valvassors_ or _bannerets_, of the diocese of Coutances, in the Lower
Normandy: the castle of Hauteville was their honorable seat: his father
Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of the duke; and
his military service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights. Two
marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the father of
twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial tenderness
of his second wife. But a narrow patrimony was insufficient for this
numerous and daring progeny; they saw around the neighborhood the
mischiefs of poverty and discord, and resolved to seek in foreign wars a
more glorious inheritance. Two only remained to perpetuate the race,
and cherish their father's age: their ten brothers, as they successfully
attained the vigor of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the
Alps, and joined the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elder were
prompted by native spirit; their success encouraged their younger
brethren, and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and
Humphrey, deserved to be the chiefs of their nation and the founders of
the new republic. Robert was the eldest of the seven sons of the second
marriage; and even the reluctant praise of his foes has endowed him with
the heroic qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His lofty stature
surpassed the tallest of his army: his limbs were cast in the true
proportion of strength and gracefulness; and to the decline of life, he
maintained the patient vigor of health and the commanding dignity of his
form. His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair and
beard were long and of a flaxen color, his eyes sparkled with fire, and
his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress obedience and terror
amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder ages of chivalry, such
qualifications are not below the notice of the poet or historians: they
may observe that Robert, at once, and with equal dexterity, could wield
in the right hand his sword, his lance in the left; that in the battle
of Civitella he was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of that
memorable day he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valor from
the warriors of the two armies. His boundless ambition was founded on
the consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of greatness, he
was never arrested by the scruples of justice, and seldom moved by the
feelings of humanity: though not insensible of fame, the choice of open
or clandestine means was determined only by his present advantage. The
surname of _Guiscard_ was applied to this master of political wisdom,
which is too often confounded with the practice of dissimulation and
deceit; and Robert is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the
cunning of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were
disguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highest
fortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers; and
while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he affected in
his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion of his country. He
grasped with a rapacious, that he might distribute with a liberal, hand:
his primitive indigence had taught the habits of frugality; the gain of
a merchant was not below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured
with slow and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of their secret
treasure. According to the Greeks, he departed from Normandy with only
five followers on horseback and thirty on foot; yet even this allowance
appears too bountiful: the sixth son of Tancred of Hauteville passed
the Alps as a pilgrim; and his first military band was levied among
the adventurers of Italy. His brothers and countrymen had divided the
fertile lands of Apulia; but they guarded their shares with the jealousy
of avarice; the aspiring youth was driven forwards to the mountains of
Calabria, and in his first exploits against the Greeks and the natives,
it is not easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To surprise
a castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to plunder the
adjacent villages for necessary food, were the obscure labors which
formed and exercised the powers of his mind and body. The volunteers of
Normandy adhered to his standard; and, under his command, the peasants
of Calabria assumed the name and character of Normans.
As the genius of Robert expanded with his fortune, he awakened the
jealousy of his elder brother, by whom, in a transient quarrel, his life
was threatened and his liberty restrained. After the death of Humphrey,
the tender age of his sons excluded them from the command; they were
reduced to a private estate, by the ambition of their guardian and
uncle; and Guiscard was exalted on a buckler, and saluted count of
Apulia and general of the republic. With an increase of authority and of
force, he resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon aspired to a rank
that should raise him forever above the heads of his equals. By some
acts of rapine or sacrilege, he had incurred a papal excommunication;
but Nicholas the Second was easily persuaded that the divisions of
friends could terminate only in their mutual prejudice; that the Normans
were the faithful champions of the Holy See; and it was safer to trust
the alliance of a prince than the caprice of an aristocracy. A synod of
one hundred bishops was convened at Melphi; and the count interrupted an
important enterprise to guard the person and execute the decrees of
the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy conferred on Robert and his
posterity the ducal title, with the investiture of Apulia, Calabria, and
all the lands, both in Italy and Sicily, which his sword could rescue
from the schismatic Greeks and the unbelieving Saracens. This apostolic
sanction might justify his arms; but the obedience of a free and
victorious people could not be transferred without their consent; and
Guiscard dissembled his elevation till the ensuing campaign had been
illustrated by the conquest of Consenza and Reggio. In the hour of
triumph, he assembled his troops, and solicited the Normans to confirm
by their suffrage the judgment of the vicar of Christ: the soldiers
hailed with joyful acclamations their valiant duke; and the counts, his
former equals, pronounced the oath of fidelity with hollow smiles and
secret indignation. After this inauguration, Robert styled himself, "By
the grace of God and St. Peter, duke of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter
of Sicily;" and it was the labor of twenty years to deserve and realize
these lofty appellations. Such tardy progress, in a narrow space,
may seem unworthy of the abilities of the chief and the spirit of the
nation; but the Normans were few in number; their resources were scanty;
their service was voluntary and precarious. The bravest designs of
the duke were sometimes opposed by the free voice of his parliament
of barons: the twelve counts of popular election conspired against his
authority; and against their perfidious uncle, the sons of Humphrey
demanded justice and revenge. By his policy and vigor, Guiscard
discovered their plots, suppressed their rebellions, and punished the
guilty with death or exile: but in these domestic feuds, his years, and
the national strength, were unprofitably consumed. After the defeat of
his foreign enemies, the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, their broken
forces retreated to the strong and populous cities of the sea-coast.
They excelled in the arts of fortification and defence; the Normans were
accustomed to serve on horseback in the field, and their rude attempts
could only succeed by the efforts of persevering courage. The resistance
of Salerno was maintained above eight months; the siege or blockade of
Bari lasted near four years. In these actions the Norman duke was the
foremost in every danger; in every fatigue the last and most patient.
As he pressed the citadel of Salerno, a huge stone from the rampart
shattered one of his military engines; and by a splinter he was wounded
in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, he lodged in a miserable hut or
barrack, composed of dry branches, and thatched with straw; a perilous
station, on all sides open to the inclemency of the winter and the
spears of the enemy.