The Saracens, Franks, and Greeks, in Italy. First Adventures and Settlement of the Normans. Character and Conquest of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia. Deliverance of Sicily by his Brother Roger. Victories of Robert over the Emperors of the East and West. Roger, King of Sicily, Invades Africa and Greece. The Emperor Manuel Comnenus. Wars of the Greeks and Normans. Extinction of the Normans.
Conflict of the Saracens, Latins and Greeks, in Italy, A.D. 840-1017
The three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the
Saracens, and the Franks, encountered each other on the
theatre of Italy. (1) The southern provinces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples, were subject, for the most
part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum; (2) so powerful in war, that they checked for a moment the genius of Charlemagne; so liberal in peace, that they maintained in
their capital an academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division of this flourishing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the
competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of their common inheritance. During a calamitous period of two hundred years, Italy was exposed to a repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capable of healing by the union and tranquility of a perfect conquest. Their frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the Christians of Naples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast; and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist or oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of human events, a new ambuscade was concealed in the Caudine Forks, the fields of
Cannae were bedewed a second time with the blood of the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome again attacked or defended the walls of Capua and Tarentum. A colony of Saracens had been planted at Bari, which commands the
entrance of the Adriatic Gulf; and their impartial depredations provoked the resentment, and conciliated the union of the two emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson of Charlemagne; (3) and each party supplied the deficiencies of his associate. It would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch to transport his stationary troops of Asia to an Italian campaign; and the Latin arms would have been insufficient if
his superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the Gulf.
Conquest of Bari, A.D. 871. The fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and by the cavalry and galleys of the Greeks; and, after a defence of four years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis, who commanded in person the operations of the siege. This important conquest had been achieved by the concord of the East and West; but their recent amity was soon embittered by the mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as their own the merit of the conquest and the pomp of the triumph; extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride the intemperance and sloth of the handful of Barbarians who appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth:
"We confess the magnitude of your preparation," says the great-grandson of Charlemagne. "Your armies were indeed as numerous as a cloud of summer locusts, who darken the day, flap their wings, and, after a short flight, tumble weary and breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew from the scene of action to injure and despoil our Christian subjects of the Sclavonian coast. We were few in number, and why were we few? Because, after a tedious expectation of your arrival, I had dismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band of warriors to continue the blockade of the city. If they indulged their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death, did these feasts abate the vigour of their enterprise? Is it by your fasting that the walls of Bari have been overturned? Did not these valiant Franks, diminished as they were by languor and fatigue, intercept and vanish the three most powerful emirs of the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of the city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be delivered; and, if we command the sea, the Island of Sicily may be rescued from the hands of the infidels. My brother (a name most offensive to the vanity of the Greek), accelerate your naval succours, respect your allies, and distrust your flatterers." (4)
New provinces of the Greeks in Italy, A.D. 890.
These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the death of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and whoever might deserve the honour, the Greek emperors, Basil, and his son Leo, secured the advantage, of the reduction of Bari The Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount Garganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of the kingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire. Beyond that line, the dukes or republics of Amalfi (5) and Naples, who had never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in the neighbourhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was enriched by supplying Europe with
the produce and manufactures of Asia. But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, (6) were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin world, and too often violated their oaths of servitude and tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy: the title of patrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, (7) was assigned to the supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was modelled in exact subordination to
the throne of Constantinople. As long as the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy, their efforts were feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or eluded the forces of Germany, which descended from the Alps under the Imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of those Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of Bari: the second, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and barons, escaped with honour from the bloody field of Crotona. Defeat of Otho III, A.D.983. On that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks by the valour of the Saracens. (8) These corsairs had indeed been driven by the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and
coasts of Italy; but a sense of interest was more prevalent
than superstition or resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had
transported forty thousand Moslems to the aid of his
Christian ally. The successors of Basil amused themselves
with the belief, that the conquest of Lombardy had been
achieved, and was still preserved by the justice of their
laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the gratitude of a
people whom they had rescued from anarchy and oppression. A
series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth into the
palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were
dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman
adventurers.
Anecdotes.
The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and Calabria a melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and the tenth century of the Christian aera. At the former period, the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted with free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and the military strength of Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior to that of a powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once flourishing provinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny, and depopulated by Barbarian war nor can we severely accuse the exaggeration of a contemporary, that a fair and ample district was reduced to the same desolation which had covered the earth after the general deluge. (9) Among the hostilities of the Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern Italy, I shall select two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. A.D. 873. 1. It was the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to pillage, the monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno, a Mussulman chief spread his couch on the communion-table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a Christian nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the roof was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse. (10) A.D. 874. 2. The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and Capua: after a vain appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek emperor. (11) A fearless citizen dropped from the walls, passed the entrenchments, accomplished his
commission, and fell into the hands of the Barbarians as he
was returning with the welcome news. They commanded him to
assist their enterprise, and deceive his countrymen, with
the assurance that wealth and honours should be the reward of
his falsehood, and that his sincerity would be punished with
immediate death. He affected to yield, but as soon as he was
conducted within hearing of the Christians on the rampart,
"Friends and brethren," he cried with a loud voice, "be bold and patient, maintain the city; your sovereign is informed of your distress, and your deliverers are at hand. I know my doom, and commit my wife and children to your gratitude."
The rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and the self-devoted patriot was transpierced with a hundred spears. He deserves to live in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the same story in ancient and modern times, may sprinkle some doubts on the reality of this generous deed. (12) A.D. 930. 3. The recital of a third incident may provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war. Theobald, marquis of Camerino and Spoleto, (13) supported the rebels of Beneventum; and his wanton cruelty was not incompatible in that age with the character of a hero. His captives of the Greek nation or party were castrated without mercy, and the outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wished to present the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious ornaments of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks dishevelled hair, and importunate clamours, compelled the marquis to listen to her complaint.
"Is it thus," she cried, "ye magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war against women, against women who have never injured ye, and whose only arms are the distaff and the loom?"
Theobald denied the charge, and protested that, since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war.
"And how," she furiously exclaimed, "can you attack us more directly, how can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our husbands of what we most dearly cherish, the source of our joys, and the hope of our posterity? The plunder of our flocks and herds I have endured without a murmur, but this fatal injury, this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on the justice of heaven and earth."
A general laugh applauded her eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of the captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she returned in triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms.
"Should such," she answered without hesitation, "be his guilt and misfortune, he has eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal offences. But let my (14) lord be pleased to spare what his little handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property."
Origin of the Normans in Italy, A.D. 1016.
The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples
and Sicily (15) 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; (16) 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, (17) and
gallantry, of the French nation; and in a martial age, the
Normans might claim the palm of valour and glorious
achievements. Of the fashionable superstitions, they
embraced with ardour 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, (18) 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 neighbourhood 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 valour 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.
Foundation of Aversa, A.D. 1029. 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, pre-eminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit. (19)
The Normans serve in Sicily, A.D. 1038.
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 entrusted eunuchs not only with the custody
of their women, but with the command of their men (20) After
a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by
their divisions. (21) 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 valour 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.
(22) Their conquest of Apulia, A.D. 1040-1043. 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 (23) 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 Cannae, 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 aera we may date the establishment of the Norman power,
which soon eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve
counts (24) 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. (25) Character of the Normans. The manners of his countrymen
are fairly delineated by a contemporary and national
historian. (26)
"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 blend 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 (27) 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." (28)
Oppression of Apulia,A.D. 1046 etc.
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; (29) 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
valour, 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; (30) and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was
invested for this purpose with the most lofty titles (31) 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. League of the Pope and the two empires, A.D. 1049-1054. 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, (32) 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; A.D. 1051and
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
succour of his allies.
Expedition of pope Leo IX. Against the Normans, A.D. 1053.
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: (33) 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 honourable death. They climbed
the hill of Civitella, descended into the plain, and charged
in three divisions the army of the pope. His defeat and captivity, June 18. 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 valour of
Count Humphrey, who led the cavalry of the right wing. The
Germans (34) 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 armour, 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. (35) 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. Origin of the papal investitures to 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. (36)
Birth and character of Robert Guiscard, A.D. 1020-1085.
The pedigree of Robert of Guiscard (37) is variously deduced
from the peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the
peasants, by the pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess;
(38) from the dukes, by the ignorance and flattery of the
Italian subjects. (39) His genuine descent may be ascribed to
the second or middle order of private nobility. (40) He
sprang from a race of valvassors or bannerets, of the
diocese of Coutances, in the Lower Normandy: the castle of
Hauteville was their honourable 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 neighbourhood 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 vigour 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 vigour
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 colour, 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 valour from the warriors of the two
armies. (41) 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 (42) 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 labours 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.
His ambition and success, A.D. 1054-1080.
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, (43) 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. (44) 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: Duke of Apulia, A.D. 1060. 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 labour 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 vigour, 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. (45)
His Italian conquests.
The Italian conquests of Robert correspond with the limits
of the present kingdom of Naples; and the countries united
by his arms have not been dissevered by the revolutions of
seven hundred years. (46) The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces of Calabria and Apulia, of the Lombard
principality of Salerno, the republic of Amalphi, and the
inland dependencies of the large and ancient duchy of
Beneventum. Three districts only were exempted from the
common law of subjection; the first forever, the two last
till the middle of the succeeding century. The city and
immediate territory of Benevento had been transferred, by
gift or exchange, from the German emperor to the Roman
pontiff; and although this holy land was sometimes invaded,
the name of St. Peter was finally more potent than the sword
of the Normans. Their first colony of Aversa subdued and
held the state of Capua; and her princes were reduced to beg
their bread before the palace of their fathers. The dukes
of Naples, the present metropolis, maintained the popular
freedom, under the shadow of the Byzantine empire. Among the
new acquisitions of Guiscard, the science of Salerno, (47)
and the trade of Amalphi, (48) may detain for a moment the
curiosity of the reader. School of Salerno. I. Of the learned faculties, jurisprudence implies the previous establishment of laws and
property; and theology may perhaps be superseded by the full
light of religion and reason. But the savage and the sage
must alike implore the assistance of physic; and, if our
diseases are inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs of blows and
wounds would be more frequent in the ruder ages of society.
The treasures of Grecian medicine had been communicated to
the Arabian colonies of Africa, Spain, and Sicily; and in
the intercourse of peace and war, a spark of knowledge had
been kindled and cherished at Salerno, an illustrious city,
in which the men were honest and the women beautiful. (49) A school, the first that arose in the darkness of Europe, was
consecrated to the healing art: the conscience of monks and
bishops was reconciled to that salutary and lucrative
profession; and a crowd of patients, of the most eminent
rank, and most distant climates, invited or visited the
physicians of Salerno. They were protected by the Norman
conquerors; and Guiscard, though bred in arms, could discern
the merit and value of a philosopher. After a pilgrimage of
thirty-nine years, Constantine, an African Christian,
returned from Bagdad, a master of the language and learning
of the Arabians; and Salerno was enriched by the practice,
the lessons, and the writings of the pupil of Avicenna. The
school of medicine has long slept in the name of a
university; but her precepts are abridged in a string of
aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine verses, or Latin
rhymes, of the twelfth century. (50) Trade of Amalphi. II. Seven miles to the west of Salerno, and thirty to the south of Naples, the obscure town of Amalphi displayed the power and rewards of industry. The land, however fertile, was of narrow extent;
but the sea was accessible and open: the inhabitants first
assumed the office of supplying the western world with the
manufactures and productions of the East; and this useful
traffic was the source of their opulence and freedom. The
government was popular, under the administration of a duke
and the supremacy of the Greek emperor. Fifty thousand
citizens were numbered in the walls of Amalphi; nor was any
city more abundantly provided with gold, silver, and the
objects of precious luxury. The mariners who swarmed in her
port, excelled in the theory and practice of navigation and
astronomy: and the discovery of the compass, which has
opened the globe, is owing to their ingenuity or good
fortune. Their trade was extended to the coasts, or at
least to the commodities, of Africa, Arabia, and India: and
their settlements in Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and
Alexandria, acquired the privileges of independent colonies.
(51) After three hundred years of prosperity, Amalphi was
oppressed by the arms of the Normans, and sacked by the
jealousy of Pisa; but the poverty of one thousand fisherman is yet dignified by the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal merchants.
Conquest of Sicily by count Roger, A.D. 1060-1090.
Roger, the twelfth and last of the sons of Tancred, had been
long detained in Normandy by his own and his father' age. He
accepted the welcome summons; hastened to the Apulian camp;
and deserved at first the esteem, and afterwards the envy,
of his elder brother. Their valour and ambition were equal;
but the youth, the beauty, the elegant manners, of Roger
engaged the disinterested love of the soldiers and people.
So scanty was his allowance for himself and forty followers,
that he descended from conquest to robbery, and from robbery
to domestic theft; and so loose were the notions of
property, that, by his own historian, at his special
command, he is accused of stealing horses from a stable at
Melphi. (52) His spirit emerged from poverty and disgrace:
from these base practices he rose to the merit and glory of
a holy war; and the invasion of Sicily was seconded by the
zeal and policy of his brother Guiscard. After the retreat
of the Greeks, the idolaters, a most audacious reproach of
the Catholics, had retrieved their losses and possessions;
but the deliverance of the island, so vainly undertaken by
the forces of the Eastern empire, was achieved by a small
and private band of adventurers. (53) In the first attempt,
Roger braved, in an open boat, the real and fabulous dangers
of Scylla and Charybdis; landed with only sixty soldiers on
a hostile shore; drove the Saracens to the gates of Messina
and safely returned with the spoils of the adjacent country.
In the fortress of Trani, his active and patient courage
were equally conspicuous. In his old age he related with
pleasure, that, by the distress of the siege, himself, and
the countess his wife, had been reduced to a single cloak or
mantle, which they wore alternately; that in a sally his
horse had been slain, and he was dragged away by the
Saracens; but that he owed his rescue to his good sword, and
had retreated with his saddle on his back, lest the meanest
trophy might be left in the hands of the miscreants. In the
siege of Trani, three hundred Normans withstood and repulsed
the forces of the island. In the field of Ceramio, fifty
thousand horse and foot were overthrown by one hundred and
thirty-six Christian soldiers, without reckoning St. George,
who fought on horseback in the foremost ranks. The captive
banners, with four camels, were reserved for the successor
of St. Peter; and had these barbaric spoils been exposed,
not in the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they might have
revived the memory of the Punic triumphs. These
insufficient numbers of the Normans most probably denote
their knights, the soldiers of honorable and equestrian
rank, each of whom was attended by five or six followers in
the field; (54) yet, with the aid of this interpretation, and
after every fair allowance on the side of valour, arms, and
reputation, the discomfiture of so many myriads will reduce
the prudent reader to the alternative of a miracle or a
fable. The Arabs of Sicily derived a frequent and powerful
succour from their countrymen of Africa: in the siege of
Palermo, the Norman cavalry was assisted by the galleys of
Pisa; and, in the hour of action, the envy of the two
brothers was sublimed to a generous and invincible
emulation. After a war of thirty years, (55) Roger, with the
title of great count, obtained the sovereignty of the
largest and most fruitful island of the Mediterranean; and
his administration displays a liberal and enlightened mind,
above the limits of his age and education. The Moslems were
maintained in the free enjoyment of their religion and
property: (56) a philosopher and physician of Mazara, of the
race of Mahomet, harangued the conqueror, and was invited to
court; his geography of the seven climates was translated
into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent perusal, preferred
the work of the Arabian to the writings of the Grecian
Ptolemy. (57) A remnant of Christian natives had promoted the success of the Normans: they were rewarded by the triumph of
the cross. The island was restored to the jurisdiction of
the Roman pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal
cities; and the clergy was satisfied by a liberal endowment
of churches and monasteries. Yet the Catholic hero asserted
the rights of the civil magistrate. Instead of resigning
the investiture of benefices, he dexterously applied to his
own profit the papal claims: the supremacy of the crown was
secured and enlarged, by the singular bull, which declares
the princes of Sicily hereditary and perpetual legates of
the Holy See. (58)
Robert invades the Eastern empire, A.D. 1081.
To Robert Guiscard, the conquest of Sicily was more glorious
than beneficial: the possession of Apulia and Calabria was
inadequate to his ambition; and he resolved to embrace or
create the first occasion of invading, perhaps of subduing,
the Roman empire of the East. (59) From his first wife, the
partner of his humble fortune, he had been divorced under
the pretence of consanguinity; and her son Bohemond was
destined to imitate, rather than to succeed, his illustrious
father. The second wife of Guiscard was the daughter of the
princes of Salerno; the Lombards acquiesced in the lineal
succession of their son Roger; their five daughters were
given in honorable nuptials, (60) and one of them was
betrothed, in a tender age, to Constantine, a beautiful
youth, the son and heir of the emperor Michael. (61) But the
throne of Constantinople was shaken by a revolution: the
Imperial family of Ducas was confined to the palace or the
cloister; and Robert deplored, and resented, the disgrace of
his daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek, who
styled himself the father of Constantine, soon appeared at
Salerno, and related the adventures of his fall and flight.
That unfortunate friend was acknowledged by the duke, and
adorned with the pomp and titles of Imperial dignity: in his
triumphal progress through Apulia and Calabria, Michael (62)
was saluted with the tears and acclamations of the people;
and Pope Gregory the Seventh exhorted the bishops to preach,
and the Catholics to fight, in the pious work of his
restoration. His conversations with Robert were frequent
and familiar; and their mutual promises were justified by
the valour of the Normans and the treasures of the East. Yet
this Michael, by the confession of the Greeks and Latins,
was a pageant and an impostor; a monk who had fled from his
convent, or a domestic who had served in the palace. The
fraud had been contrived by the subtle Guiscard; and he
trusted, that after this pretender had given a decent colour
to his arms, he would sink, at the nod of the conqueror,
into his primitive obscurity. But victory was the only
argument that could determine the belief of the Greeks; and
the ardour of the Latins was much inferior to their
credulity: the Norman veterans wished to enjoy the harvest
of their toils, and the unwarlike Italians trembled at the
known and unknown dangers of a transmarine expedition. In
his new levies, Robert exerted the influence of gifts and
promises, the terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority;
and some acts of violence might justify the reproach, that
age and infancy were pressed without distinction into the
service of their unrelenting prince. After two years'
incessant preparations the land and naval forces were
assembled at Otranto, at the heel, or extreme promontory, of
Italy; and Robert was accompanied by his wife, who fought by
his side, his son Bohemond, and the representative of the
emperor Michael. Thirteen hundred knights (63) of Norman race or discipline, formed the sinews of the army, which
might be swelled to thirty thousand (64) followers of every
denomination. The men, the horses, the arms, the engines,
the wooden towers, covered with raw hides, were embarked on
board one hundred and fifty vessels: the transports had been
built in the ports of Italy, and the galleys were supplied
by the alliance of the republic of Ragusa.
Siege of Durazzo, A.D. 1081, June 17.
At the mouth of the Adriatic Gulf, the shores of Italy and
Epirus incline towards each other. The space between
Brundusium and Durazzo, the Roman passage, is no more than
one hundred miles; (65) at the last station of Otranto, it is
contracted to fifty; (66) and this narrow distance had
suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the sublime or extravagant
idea of a bridge. Before the general embarkation, the
Norman duke despatched Bohemond with fifteen galleys to
seize or threaten the Isle of Corfu, to survey the opposite
coast, and to secure a harbour in the neighbourhood of Vallona
for the landing of the troops. They passed and landed
without perceiving an enemy; and this successful experiment
displayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the
Greeks. The islands of Epirus and the maritime towns were
subdued by the arms or the name of Robert, who led his fleet
and army from Corfu (I use the modern appellation) to the
siege of Durazzo. That city, the western key of the empire,
was guarded by ancient renown, and recent fortifications, by
George Palaeologus, a patrician, victorious in the Oriental
wars, and a numerous garrison of Albanians and Macedonians,
who, in every age, have maintained the character of
soldiers. In the prosecution of his enterprise, the courage
of Guiscard was assailed by every form of danger and
mischance. In the most propitious season of the year, as
his fleet passed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow
unexpectedly arose: the Adriatic was swelled by the raging
blast of the south, and a new shipwreck confirmed the old
infamy of the Acroceraunian rocks. (67) The sails, the masts,
and the oars, were shattered or torn away; the sea and shore
were covered with the fragments of vessels, with arms and
dead bodies; and the greatest part of the provisions were
either drowned or damaged. The ducal galley was laboriously
rescued from the waves, and Robert halted seven days on the
adjacent cape, to collect the relics of his loss, and revive
the drooping spirits of his soldiers. The Normans were no
longer the bold and experienced mariners who had explored
the ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled at
the petty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept
during the tempest; they were alarmed by the hostile
approach of the Venetians, who had been solicited by the
prayers and promises of the Byzantine court. The first
day's action was not disadvantageous to Bohemond, a
beardless youth, (68) who led the naval powers of his father.
All night the galleys of the republic lay on their anchors
in the form of a crescent; and the victory of the second day
was decided by the dexterity of their evolutions, the
station of their archers, the weight of their javelins, and
the borrowed aid of the Greek fire. The Apulian and
Ragusian vessels fled to the shore, several were cut from
their cables, and dragged away by the conqueror; and a sally
from the town carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of
the Norman duke. A seasonable relief was poured into
Durazzo, and as soon as the besiegers had lost the command
of the sea, the islands and maritime towns withdrew from the
camp the supply of tribute and provision. That camp was
soon afflicted with a pestilential disease; five hundred
knights perished by an inglorious death; and the list of
burials (if all could obtain a decent burial) amounted to
ten thousand persons. Under these calamities, the mind of
Guiscard alone was firm and invincible; and while he
collected new forces from Apulia and Sicily, he battered, or
scaled, or sapped, the walls of Durazzo. But his industry
and valour were encountered by equal valour and more perfect
industry. A movable turret, of a size and capacity to
contain five hundred soldiers, had been rolled forwards to
the foot of the rampart: but the descent of the door or
drawbridge was checked by an enormous beam, and the wooden
structure was constantly consumed by artificial flames.
The army and the march of the emperor Alexius, April-September.
While the Roman empire was attacked by the Turks in the
East, east, and the Normans in the West, the aged successor
of Michael surrendered the sceptre to the hands of Alexius,
an illustrious captain, and the founder of the Comnenian
dynasty. The princess Anne, his daughter and historian,
observes, in her affected style, that even Hercules was
unequal to a double combat; and, on this principle, she
approves a hasty peace with the Turks, which allowed her
father to undertake in person the relief of Durazzo. On his
accession, Alexius found the camp without soldiers, and the
treasury without money; yet such were the vigour and activity
of his measures, that in six months he assembled an army of
seventy thousand men, (69) and performed a march of five
hundred miles. His troops were levied in Europe and Asia,
from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was
displayed in the silver arms and rich trappings of the
companies of Horse-guards; and the emperor was attended by a
train of nobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid
succession, had been clothed with the purple, and were
indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of affluence
and dignity. Their youthful ardour might animate the
multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of
subordination were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and
their importunate clamours for speedy and decisive action
disconcerted the prudence of Alexius, who might have
surrounded and starved the besieging army. The enumeration
of provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and
present limits of the Roman world: the raw levies were drawn
together in haste and terror; and the garrisons of Anatolia,
or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the evacuation of the
cities which were immediately occupied by the Turks. The
strength of the Greek army consisted in the Varangians, the
Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented
by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British Island
of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes
and English were oppressed and united; a band of adventurous
youths resolved to desert a land of slavery; the sea was
open to their escape; and, in their long pilgrimage, they
visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and
revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek
emperor; and their first station was in a new city on the
Asiatic shore: but Alexius soon recalled them to the defence
of his person and palace; and bequeathed to his successors
the inheritance of their faith and valour. (70) The name of a
Norman invader revived the memory of their wrongs: they
marched with alacrity against the national foe, and panted
to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the
battle of Hastings. The Varangians were supported by some
companies of Franks or Latins; and the rebels, who had fled
to Constantinople from the tyranny of Guiscard, were eager
to signalize their zeal and gratify their revenge. In this
emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impure aid of
the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and
these heretics united with the patience of martyrdom the
spirit and discipline of active valour. (71) The treaty with
the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand Turks; and
the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the lances
of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect
of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of
his principal officers.
"You behold," said he, "your danger: it is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and standards; and the emperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the command to a more worthy leader."
The vote and acclamation even of his secret enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence; and the duke thus continued:
"Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the place of our nativity and our burial."
The resolution was unanimously approved; and, without confining himself to his lines, Guiscard awaited in battle-array the nearer approach of the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing extended to the sea; his left to the hills: nor was he conscious, perhaps, that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had formerly disputed the empire of the world. (72)
Battle of Durazzo, A.D. 1081, October 18.
Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved
to risk the event of a general action, and exhorted the
garrison of Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a
well-timed sally from the town. He marched in two columns
to surprise the Normans before daybreak on two different
sides: his light cavalry was scattered over the plain; the
archers formed the second line; and the Varangians claimed
the honours of the vanguard. In the first onset, the
battle-axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody
impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now reduced to
fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabrians
ignominiously turned their backs; they fled towards the
river and the sea; but the bridge had been broken down to
check the sally of the garrison, and the coast was lined
with the Venetian galleys, who played their engines among
the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, they were
saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the
wife of Robert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike
Amazon, a second Pallas; less skilful in arts, but not less
terrible in arms, than the Athenian goddess: (73) though
wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by
her exhortation and example, to rally the flying troops. (74)
Her female voice was seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council:
"Whither," he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly? Your enemy is implacable; and death is less grievous than servitude."
The moment was decisive: as the Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the nakedness of their flanks: the main battle of the duke, of eight hundred knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their lances, and the Greeks deplore the furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry. (75) Alexius was not deficient in the duties of a soldier or a general; but he no sooner beheld the slaughter of the Varangians, and the flight of the Turks, than he despised his subjects, and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the strength and swiftness of her father's horse, and his vigorous struggle when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of a lance, which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valour broke through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight; and after wandering two days and as many nights in the mountains, he found some repose, of body, though not of mind, in the walls of Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered the escape of so illustrious a prize: but he consoled his disappointment by the trophies and standards of the field, the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine camp, and the glory of defeating an army five times more numerous than his own. A multitude of Italians had been the victims of their own fears; but only thirty of his knights were slain in this memorable day. In the Roman host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, and English, amounted to five or six thousand: (76) the plain of Durazzo was stained with noble and royal blood; and the end of the impostor Michael was more honorable than his life.
Durazzo taken, A.D. 1082, February 8.
It is more than probable that Guiscard was not afflicted by
the loss of a costly pageant, which had merited only the
contempt and derision of the Greeks. After their defeat,
they still persevered in the defence of Durazzo; and a
Venetian commander supplied the place of George Palaeologus,
who had been imprudently called away from his station. The
tents of the besiegers were converted into barracks, to
sustain the inclemency of the winter; and in answer to the
defiance of the garrison, Robert insinuated, that his
patience was at least equal to their obstinacy. (77) Perhaps
he already trusted to his secret correspondence with a
Venetian noble, who sold the city for a rich and honorable
marriage. At the dead of night, several rope-ladders were
dropped from the walls; the light Calabrians ascended in
silence; and the Greeks were awakened by the name and
trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they defended the streets
three days against an enemy already master of the rampart;
and near seven months elapsed between the first investment
and the final surrender of the place. From Durazzo, the
Norman duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania;
traversed the first mountains of Thessaly; surprised three
hundred English in the city of Castoria; approached
Thessalonica; and made Constantinople tremble. A more
pressing duty suspended the prosecution of his ambitious
designs. By shipwreck, pestilence, and the sword, his army
was reduced to a third of the original numbers; and instead
of being recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive
epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers which had been
produced by his absence: the revolt of the cities and barons
of Apulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach or
invasion of Henry king of Germany. Return of Robert, and the actions of Bohemond. Highly presuming that
his person was sufficient for the public safety, he repassed
the sea in a single brigantine, and left the remains of the
army under the command of his son and the Norman counts,
exhorting Bohemond to respect the freedom of his peers, and
the counts to obey the authority of their leader. The son
of Guiscard trod in the footsteps of his father; and the two
destroyers are compared, by the Greeks, to the caterpillar
and the locust, the last of whom devours whatever has
escaped the teeth of the former. (78) After winning two
battles against the emperor, he descended into the plain of
Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous realm of
Achilles, (79) which contained the treasure and magazines of
the Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise must not be refused
to the fortitude and prudence of Alexius, who bravely
struggled with the calamities of the times. In the poverty
of the state, he presumed to borrow the superfluous
ornaments of the churches: the desertion of the Manichaeans
was supplied by some tribes of Moldavia: a reinforcement of
seven thousand Turks replaced and revenged the loss of their
brethren; and the Greek soldiers were exercised to ride, to
draw the bow, and to the daily practice of ambuscades and
evolutions. Alexius had been taught by experience, that the
formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for
action, and almost incapable of motion; (80) his archers were
directed to aim their arrows at the horse rather than the
man; and a variety of spikes and snares were scattered over
the ground on which he might expect an attack. In the
neighbourhood of Larissa the events of war were protracted
and balanced. The courage of Bohemond was always
conspicuous, and often successful; but his camp was pillaged
by a stratagem of the Greeks; the city was impregnable; and
the venal or discontented counts deserted his standard,
betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service of the
emperor. Alexius returned to Constantinople with the
advantage, rather than the honour, of victory. After
evacuating the conquests which he could no longer defend,
the son of Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by
a father who esteemed his merit, and sympathized in his
misfortune.
The emperor Henry III invited by the Greeks, A.D. 1081.
Of the Latin princes, the allies of Alexius and enemies of
Robert, the most prompt and powerful was Henry the Third or
Fourth, king of Germany and Italy, and future emperor of the
West. The epistle of the Greek monarch (81) to his brother
is filled with the warmest professions of friendship, and
the most lively desire of strengthening their alliance by
every public and private tie. He congratulates Henry on his
success in a just and pious war; and complains that the
prosperity of his own empire is disturbed by the audacious
enterprises of the Norman Robert. The lists of his presents
expresses the manners of the age - a radiated crown of gold,
a cross set with pearls to hang on the breast, a case of
relics, with the names and titles of the saints, a vase of
crystal, a vase of sardonyx, some balm, most probably of
Mecca, and one hundred pieces of purple. To these he added
a more solid present, of one hundred and forty-four thousand
Byzantines of gold, with a further assurance of two hundred
and sixteen thousand, so soon as Henry should have entered
in arms the Apulian territories, and confirmed by an oath
the league against the common enemy. The German, (82) who was already in Lombardy at the head of an army and a faction,
accepted these liberal offers, and marched towards the
south: his speed was checked by the sound of the battle of
Durazzo; but the influence of his arms, or name, in the
hasty return of Robert, was a full equivalent for the
Grecian bribe. Henry was the severe adversary of the
Normans, the allies and vassals of Gregory the Seventh, his
implacable foe. The long quarrel of the throne and mitre had
been recently kindled by the zeal and ambition of that
haughty priest: (83) the king and the pope had degraded each
other; and each had seated a rival on the temporal or
spiritual throne of his antagonist. After the defeat and
death of his Swabian rebel, Henry descended into Italy, to
assume the Imperial crown, and to drive from the Vatican the
tyrant of the church. (84) But the Roman people adhered to
the cause of Gregory: their resolution was fortified by
supplies of men and money from Apulia; Besieges Rome, A.D. 1081-1084. and the city was thrice ineffectually besieged by the king of Germany. In
the fourth year he corrupted, as it is said, with Byzantine
gold, the nobles of Rome, whose estates and castles had been
ruined by the war. The gates, the bridges, and fifty
hostages, were delivered into his hands: A.D. 1081-1084, March 21. the anti-pope, Clement the Third, was consecrated in the Lateran: March 24. the
grateful pontiff crowned his protector in the Vatican; March 31. and
the emperor Henry fixed his residence in the Capitol, as the
lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The ruins of
the Septizonium were still defended by the nephew of
Gregory: the pope himself was invested in the castle of St.
Angelo; and his last hope was in the courage and fidelity of
his Norman vassal. Their friendship had been interrupted by
some reciprocal injuries and complaints; but, on this
pressing occasion, Guiscard was urged by the obligation of
his oath, by his interest, more potent than oaths, by the
love of fame, and his enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling
the holy banner, he resolved to fly to the relief of the
prince of the apostles: the most numerous of his armies, six
thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot, was instantly
assembled; and his march from Salerno to Rome was animated
by the public applause and the promise of the divine favour.
Henry, invincible in sixty-six battles, trembled at his
approach; recollected some indispensable affairs that
required his presence in Lombardy; exhorted the Romans to
persevere in their allegiance; Flies before Robert, May. and hastily retreated three days before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three
years, the son of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of
delivering the pope, and of compelling the two emperors, of
the East and West, to fly before his victorious arms. (85)
But the triumph of Robert was clouded by the calamities of
Rome. By the aid of the friends of Gregory, the walls had
been perforated or scaled; but the Imperial faction was
still powerful and active; on the third day, the people rose
in a furious tumult; and a hasty word of the conqueror, in
his defence or revenge, was the signal of fire and pillage.
(86) The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects of Roger, and
auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this fair occasion of
rifling and profaning the holy city of the Christians: many
thousands of the citizens, in the sight, and by the allies,
of their spiritual father were exposed to violation,
captivity, or death; and a spacious quarter of the city,
from the Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by the
flames, and devoted to perpetual solitude. (87) From a city,
where he was now hated, and might be no longer feared,
Gregory retired to end his days in the palace of Salerno.
The artful pontiff might flatter the vanity of Guiscard with
the hope of a Roman or Imperial crown; but this dangerous
measure, which would have inflamed the ambition of the
Norman, must forever have alienated the most faithful
princes of Germany.
Second expedition of Robert into Greece, A.D. 1084, October.
The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged
himself in a season of repose; but in the same year of the
flight of the German emperor, the indefatigable Robert
resumed the design of his eastern conquests. The zeal or
gratitude of Gregory had promised to his valour the kingdoms
of Greece and Asia; (88) his troops were assembled in arms,
flushed with success, and eager for action. Their numbers,
in the language of Homer, are compared by Anna to a swarm of
bees; (89) yet the utmost and moderate limits of the powers
of Guiscard have been already defined; they were contained
on this second occasion in one hundred and twenty vessels;
and as the season was far advanced, the harbour of Brundusium
(90) was preferred to the open road of Otranto. Alexius,
apprehensive of a second attack, had assiduously labored to
restore the naval forces of the empire; and obtained from
the republic of Venice an important succour of thirty-six
transports, fourteen galleys, and nine galiots or ships of
extra-ordinary strength and magnitude. Their services were
liberally paid by the license or monopoly of trade, a
profitable gift of many shops and houses in the port of
Constantinople, and a tribute to St. Mark, the more
acceptable, as it was the produce of a tax on their rivals
at Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks and Venetians, the
Adriatic was covered with a hostile fleet; but their own
neglect, or the vigilance of Robert, the change of a wind,
or the shelter of a mist, opened a free passage; and the
Norman troops were safely disembarked on the coast of
Epirus. With twenty strong and well-appointed galleys,
their intrepid duke immediately sought the enemy, and though
more accustomed to fight on horseback, he trusted his own
life, and the lives of his brother and two sons, to the
event of a naval combat. The dominion of the sea was
disputed in three engagements, in sight of the Isle of
Corfu: in the two former, the skill and numbers of the
allies were superior; but in the third, the Normans obtained
a final and complete victory. (91) The light brigantines of
the Greeks were scattered in ignominious flight: the nine
castles of the Venetians maintained a more obstinate
conflict; seven were sunk, two were taken; two thousand five
hundred captives implored in vain the mercy of the victor;
and the daughter of Alexius deplores the loss of thirteen
thousand of his subjects or allies. The want of experience
had been supplied by the genius of Guiscard; and each
evening, when he had sounded a retreat, he calmly explored
the causes of his repulse, and invented new methods how to
remedy his own defects, and to baffle the advantages of the
enemy. The winter season suspended his progress: with the
return of spring he again aspired to the conquest of
Constantinople; but, instead of traversing the hills of
Epirus, he turned his arms against Greece and the islands,
where the spoils would repay the labor, and where the land
and sea forces might pursue their joint operations with
vigour and effect. His death, A.D. 1085, July 17. But, in the Isle of Cephalonia, his projects were fatally blasted by an epidemical disease:
Robert himself, in the seventieth year of his age, expired
in his tent; and a suspicion of poison was imputed, by
public rumour, to his wife, or to the Greek emperor. (92) This
premature death might allow a boundless scope for the
imagination of his future exploits; and the event
sufficiently declares, that the Norman greatness was founded
on his life. (93) Without the appearance of an enemy, a
victorious army dispersed or retreated in disorder and
consternation; and Alexius, who had trembled for his empire,
rejoiced in his deliverance. The galley which transported
the remains of Guiscard was ship-wrecked on the Italian
shore; but the duke's body was recovered from the sea, and
deposited in the sepulchre of Venusia, (94) a place more
illustrious for the birth of Horace (95) than for the burial
of the Norman heroes. Roger, his second son and successor,
immediately sunk to the humble station of a duke of Apulia:
the esteem or partiality of his father left the valiant
Bohemond to the inheritance of his sword. The national
tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till the first
crusade against the infidels of the East opened a more
splendid field of glory and conquest. (96)
Reign and ambition of Roger, great count of Sicily , A.D. 1101-1154, February 26.
Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are
alike and soon bounded by the sepulchre. The male line of
Robert Guiscard was extinguished, both in Apulia and at
Antioch, in the second generation; but his younger brother
became the father of a line of kings; and the son of the
great count was endowed with the name, the conquests, and
the spirit, of the first Roger. (97) The heir of that Norman
adventurer was born in Sicily; and, at the age of only four
years, he succeeded to the sovereignty of the island, a lot
which reason might envy, could she indulge for a moment the
visionary, though virtuous wish of dominion. Had Roger been
content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and grateful
people might have blessed their benefactor; and if a wise
administration could have restored the prosperous times of
the Greek colonies, (98) the opulence and power of Sicily
alone might have equalled the widest scope that could be
acquired and desolated by the sword of war. But the ambition
of the great count was ignorant of these noble pursuits; it
was gratified by the vulgar means of violence and artifice.
He sought to obtain the undivided possession of Palermo, of
which one moiety had been ceded to the elder branch;
struggled to enlarge his Calabrian limits beyond the measure
of former treaties; and impatiently watched the declining
health of his cousin William of Apulia, the grandson of
Robert. Duke of Apulia, A.D. 1127. On the first intelligence of his premature death, Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor in
the Bay of Salerno, received, after ten days' negotiation,
an oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, commanded the
submission of the barons, and extorted a legal investiture
from the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either
the friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred
spot of Benevento was respectfully spared, as the patrimony
of St. Peter; but the reduction of Capua and Naples
completed the design of his uncle Guiscard; and the sole
inheritance of the Norman conquests was possessed by the
victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of power and
merit prompted him to disdain the titles of duke and of
count; and the Isle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the
continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom (99)
which would only yield to the monarchies of France and
England. The chiefs of the nation who attended his
coronation at Palermo might doubtless pronounce under what
name he should reign over them; but the example of a Greek
tyrant or a Saracen emir was insufficient to justify his
regal character; and the nine kings of the Latin world (100)
might disclaim their new associate, unless he were
consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. First king of Sicily, A.D. 1130, Dec. 25- A.D. 1139, July 25. The
pride of Anacletus was pleased to confer a title, which the
pride of the Norman had stooped to solicit; (101) but his own
legitimacy was attacked by the adverse election of Innocent
the Second; and while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the
successful fugitive was acknowledged by the nations of
Europe. The infant monarchy of Roger was shaken, and almost
overthrown, by the unlucky choice of an ecclesiastical
patron; and the sword of Lothaire the Second of Germany, the
excommunications of Innocent, the fleets of Pisa, and the
zeal of St. Bernard, were united for the ruin of the
Sicilian robber. After a gallant resistance, the Norman
prince was driven from the continent of Italy: a new duke of
Apulia was invested by the pope and the emperor, each of
whom held one end of the gonfanon, or flagstaff, as a token
that they asserted their right, and suspended their quarrel.
But such jealous friendship was of short and precarious
duration: the German armies soon vanished in disease and
desertion: (102) the Apulian duke, with all his adherents,
was exterminated by a conqueror who seldom forgave either
the dead or the living; like his predecessor Leo the Ninth,
the feeble though haughty pontiff became the captive and
friend of the Normans; and their reconciliation was
celebrated by the eloquence of Bernard, who now revered the
title and virtues of the king of Sicily.
His conquests in Africa, A.D. 1122-1152.
As a penance for his impious war against the successor of
St. Peter, that monarch might have promised to display the
banner of the cross, and he accomplished with ardour a vow so
propitious to his interest and revenge. The recent injuries
of Sicily might provoke a just retaliation on the heads of
the Saracens: the Normans, whose blood had been mingled with
so many subject streams, were encouraged to remember and
emulate the naval trophies of their fathers, and in the
maturity of their strength they contended with the decline
of an African power. When the Fatimite caliph departed for
the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded the real merit and
apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a gift of his
royal mantle, and forty Arabian horses, his palace with its
sumptuous furniture, and the government of the kingdoms of
Tunis and Algiers. The Zeirides, (103) the descendants of
Joseph, forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant
benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits of prosperity; and
after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty, were
now fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the
land, they were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic
princes of Morocco, while the sea-coast was open to the
enterprises of the Greeks and Franks, who, before the close
of the eleventh century, had extorted a ransom of two
hundred thousand pieces of gold. By the first arms of
Roger, the island or rock of Malta, which has been since
ennobled by a military and religious colony, was inseparably
annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, (104) a strong and
maritime city, was the next object of his attack; and the
slaughter of the males, the captivity of the females, might
be justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems
themselves. The capital of the Zeirides was named Africa
from the country, and Mahadia (105) from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built on a neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbour is not compensated by the fertility of the
adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign had fled, the Moorish governor refused to
capitulate, declined the last and irresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem inhabitants abandoned the place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. In successive expeditions, the king of Sicily or his
lieutenants reduced the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast; (106) the fortresses
were garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast that it held Africa in subjection might be inscribed with some flattery on the sword of Roger. (107) After his death, that sword was broken; and these transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the troubled reign of his successor. (108) The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved, that the African continent is neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the great princes and powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest and long servitude of Spain.
His invasion of Greece, A.D. 1146.
Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had relinquished, above sixty years, their hostile designs against the empire of the East. The policy of Roger
solicited a public and private union with the Greek princes, whose alliance would dignify his regal character: he demanded in marriage a daughter of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed to promise a favourable event. But the contemptuous treatment of his ambassadors
exasperated the vanity of the new monarch; and the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people. (109) With the fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily, appeared before Corfu; and both the island and city were delivered into his hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had yet to learn that a siege is still more calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the annals of commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls, which encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of Thebes, were scaled by the Latin Christians; but their sole use of the gospel was to sanctify an oath, that the lawful owners had not secreted any relic of their inheritance or industry. On the approach of the Normans, the lower town of Corinth was evacuated; the Greeks retired
to the citadel, which was seated on a lofty eminence, abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene; an impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by any advantages of art or nature. As soon as the
besiegers had surmounted the labor (their sole labor) of climbing the hill, their general, from the commanding eminence, admired his own victory, and testified his gratitude to Heaven, by tearing from the altar the precious
image of Theodore, the tutelary saint. The silk weavers of both sexes, whom George transported to Sicily, composed the most valuable part of the spoil; and in comparing the
skilful industry of the mechanic with the sloth and
cowardice of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim that the
distaff and loom were the only weapons which the Greeks were
capable of using. His admiral delivers LouisVII of France. The progress of this naval armament was
marked by two conspicuous events, the rescue of the king of
France, and the insult of the Byzantine capital. In his
return by sea from an unfortunate crusade, Louis the Seventh
was intercepted by the Greeks, who basely violated the laws
of honour and religion. The fortunate encounter of the
Norman fleet delivered the royal captive; and after a free
and honorable entertainment in the court of Sicily, Louis
continued his journey to Rome and Paris. (110) insults Constantinople In the absence of the emperor, Constantinople and the Hellespont were left without defence and without the suspicion of danger. The clergy and people (for the soldiers had followed the standard of Manuel) were astonished and dismayed at the hostile appearance of a line of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the front of the Imperial city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inadequate to the siege or assault of an immense and populous metropolis; but George enjoyed the glory of humbling the Greek arrogance, and of marking the path of conquest to the navies of the West. He landed some soldiers to rifle the fruits of the royal gardens, and pointed with silver, or most probably with fire, the arrows which he discharged against the palace of the Caesars. (111) The emperor Manuel repulses the Normans, A.D. 1148, 1149. This playful outrage of the pirates of Sicily, who had surprised an unguarded moment, Manuel affected to despise, while his martial spirit, and the forces of the empire, were awakened to revenge. The Archipelago and Ionian Sea were covered with his squadrons and those of Venice; but I know
not by what favourable allowance of transports, victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, or even our fancy, can be reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen hundred vessels, which is proposed by a Byzantine historian. These operations were directed with prudence and energy: in his homeward voyage George lost nineteen of his galleys, which were separated and taken: after an obstinate defence, Corfu implored the clemency of her lawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a soldier, of the Norman prince, be found, unless as a
captive, within the limits of the Eastern empire. The prosperity and the health of Roger were already in a declining state: while he listened in his palace of Palermo to the messengers of victory or defeat, the invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault, was celebrated by the Greeks and Latins as the Alexander or the Hercules of the age.
He reduces Apulia and Calabria, A.D. 1155.
A prince of such a temper could not be satisfied with having
repelled the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and
duty, it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to
restore the ancient majesty of the empire, to recover the
provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise this
pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal. (112) The
natives of Calabria were still attached to the Greek
language and worship, which had been inexorably proscribed
by the Latin clergy: after the loss of her dukes, Apulia was
chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily; the
founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his
death had abated the fear, without healing the discontent,
of his subjects: the feudal government was always pregnant
with the seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself
invited the enemies of his family and nation. The majesty
of the purple, and a series of Hungarian and Turkish wars,
prevented Manuel from embarking his person in the Italian
expedition. To the brave and noble Palaeologus, his
lieutenant, the Greek monarch entrusted a fleet and army:
the siege of Bari was his first exploit; and, in every
operation, gold as well as steel was the instrument of
victory. Salerno, and some places along the western coast,
maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in
two campaigns the greater part of his continental
possessions; and the modest emperor, disdaining all flattery
and falsehood, was content with the reduction of three
hundred cities or villages of Apulia and Calabria, whose
names and titles were inscribed on all the walls of the
palace. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified by a
genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of the German
Caesars; (113) His design of acquiring Italy and the Western empire, A.D. 1155-1174, etc. but the successor of Constantine soon renounced this ignominious pretence, claimed the
indefeasible dominion of Italy, and professed his design of
chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful
speeches, liberal gifts, and unbounded promises, of their
Eastern ally, the free cities were encouraged to persevere
in their generous struggle against the despotism of Frederic
Barbarossa: the walls of Milan were rebuilt by the
contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian,
a river of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment
to the Greeks was fortified by the jealous enmity of the
Venetians. (114) The situation and trade of Ancona rendered
it an important garrison in the heart of Italy: it was twice
besieged by the arms of Frederic; the imperial forces were
twice repulsed by the spirit of freedom; that spirit was
animated by the ambassador of Constantinople; and the most
intrepid patriots, the most faithful servants, were rewarded
by the wealth and honours of the Byzantine court. (115) The
pride of Manuel disdained and rejected a Barbarian
colleague; his ambition was excited by the hope of stripping
the purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, in
the West, as in the East, his lawful title of sole emperor
of the Romans. With this view, he solicited the alliance of
the people and the bishop of Rome. Several of the nobles
embraced the cause of the Greek monarch; the splendid
nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani secured the
support of that powerful family, (116) and his royal standard
or image was entertained with due reverence in the ancient
metropolis. (117) During the quarrel between Frederic and
Alexander the Third, the pope twice received in the Vatican
the ambassadors of Constantinople. They flattered his piety
by the long-promised union of the two churches, tempted the
avarice of his venal court, and exhorted the Roman pontiff
to seize the just provocation, the favourable moment, to
humble the savage insolence of the Alemanni and to
acknowledge the true representative of Constantine and
Augustus. (118)
Failure of his designs.
But these Italian conquests, this universal reign, soon
escaped from the hand of the Greek emperor. His first
demands were eluded by the prudence of Alexander the Third,
who paused on this deep and momentous revolution; (119) nor could the pope be seduced by a personal dispute to renounce
the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After the
reunion with Frederic, he spoke a more peremptory language,
confirmed the acts of his predecessors, excommunicated the
adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final separation of
the churches, or at least the empires, of Constantinople and
Rome. (120) The free cities of Lombardy no longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and without preserving the
friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity of Venice. (121) By his own avarice, or the complaints of his subjects, the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons, and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This violation of the public faith exasperated a free and commercial people: one hundred galleys were launched and armed in as many days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece: but after some mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement, inglorious to the empire, insufficient for the republic; and a complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the succeeding generation. The lieutenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to quell any domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were inadequate to resist the impending attack of the king of Sicily. His prophecy was soon verified: the death of Palaeologus devolved the command on several chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike defective in military talents; the Greeks were oppressed by land and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of the Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person or dominions of their conqueror. (122) Yet the king of Sicily esteemed the courage and constancy of Manuel, who had landed a second army on the Italian shore; he respectfully addressed the new Justinian; Peace with the Normans, A.D. 1156. solicited a peace or truce of thirty years, accepted as a gift the regal title; and acknowledged himself the military vassal of the Roman empire. (123) The Byzantine Caesars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, without expecting, perhaps without desiring, the service of a Norman army; and the truce of thirty years was not disturbed by any hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople. About the end of that period, the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and mankind: the sword of William the Second, the grandson of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; and the subjects of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they
detested their sovereign as the worst of enemies. Last war of the Greeks and Normans, A.D. 1185. The Latin historians (124) expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts who invaded Romania with a fleet and army, and reduced many castles and cities to the obedience of the king of Sicily. The Greeks (125) accuse and magnify the wanton and sacrilegious cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the second city of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those invincible but unsuspecting warriors who were destroyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songs of triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the Sea of Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the walls of Durazzo. A revolution which punished the crimes of Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of the successful insurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and Isaac Angelus, the new emperor, might indulge his vanity or vengeance in the treatment of four thousand captives. Such was the event of the last contest between the Greeks and Normans: before the expiration of twenty years, the rival nations were lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successors of Constantine did not long survive to insult the fall of the Sicilian monarchy.
William I. the Bad king of Sicily, A.D. 1154, Feb.26 -A.D. 1166, May 7.
The sceptre of Roger successively devolved to his son and grandson: they might be confounded under the name of William: they are strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and the good; but these epithets, which appear to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to arms by danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the valour of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were dissolute; his passions headstrong and mischievous; and the monarch is responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and conspired against the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of Oriental manners; the despotism, the pomp, and even the harem, of a sultan; and a Christian people was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times (126) has delineated the misfortunes of his country: (127) the ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of his assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself; the private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, and the continent, during the reign of William the First, and the minority of his son. William II. the Good, A.D. 1166, May 7 -A.D. 1189, Nov. 16. The youth, innocence, and beauty of William the Second, (128) endeared him to the nation: the factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and from the manhood to the premature death of that amiable prince, Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and happiness, whose value was enhanced by the remembrance of the past and the dread of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred of Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second William; but his aunt, the daughter of Roger, had married the most powerful prince of the age; and Henry the Sixth, the son of Frederic Barbarossa, descended from the Alps to claim the Imperial crown and the inheritance of his wife. Against the unanimous wish of a free people, this inheritance could only be acquired by arms; and I am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of the historian Falcandus, who writes at the moment, and on the spot, with the feelings of a patriot, and the prophetic eye of a statesman.
Lamentation of the historian Falcandus.
"Constantia, the daughter of Sicily, nursed from her cradle in the pleasures and plenty, and educated in the arts and manners, of this fortunate isle, departed long since to enrich the Barbarians with our treasures, and now returns, with her savage allies, to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent. Already I behold the swarms of angry Barbarians: our opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. (129) In this extremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act? By the unanimous election of a king of valour and experience, Sicily and Calabria might yet be preserved; (130) for in the levity of the Apulians, ever eager for new revolutions, I can repose neither confidence nor hope. (131) Should Calabria be lost, the lofty towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength, of Messina, (132) might guard the passage against a foreign invader. If the savage Germans coalesce with the pirates of Messina; if they destroy with fire the fruitful region, so often wasted by the fires of Mount Aetna, (133) what resource will be left for the interior parts of the island, these noble cities which should never be violated by the hostile footsteps of a Barbarian? (134) Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earthquake: the ancient virtue of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude; (135) but Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her triple walls enclose the active multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the two nations, under one king, can unite for their common safety, they may rush on the Barbarians with invincible arms. But if the Saracens, fatigued by a repetition of injuries, should now retire and rebel; if they should occupy the castles of the mountains and sea-coast, the unfortunate Christians, exposed to a double attack, and placed as it were between the hammer and the anvil, must resign themselves to hopeless and inevitable servitude." (136)
We must not forget, that a priest here prefers his country to his religion; and that the Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were still numerous and powerful in the state of Sicily.
Conquest of the kingdom of Sicily by the emperor Henry VI. A.D. 1194.
The hopes, or at least the wishes, of Falcandus were at first gratified by the free and unanimous election of Tancred, the grandson of the first king, whose birth was illegitimate, but whose civil and military virtues shone
without a blemish. During four years, the term of his life and reign, he stood in arms on the farthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the powers of Germany; and the restitution of a royal captive, of Constantia herself,
without injury or ransom, may appear to surpass the most liberal measure of policy or reason. After his decease, the kingdom of his widow and infant son fell without a struggle; and Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua to
Palermo. The political balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and if the pope and the free cities had consulted their obvious and real interest, they would have combined the powers of earth and heaven to prevent the dangerous union of the German empire with the kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle policy, for which the Vatican has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion blind and inactive; and if it were true that Celestine the Third
had kicked away the Imperial crown from the head of the prostrate Henry, (137) such an act of impotent pride could
serve only to cancel an obligation and provoke an enemy. The Genoese, who enjoyed a beneficial trade and establishment in Sicily, listened to the promise of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure: (138) their fleet commanded the straits of Messina, and opened the harbour of Palermo; and the first act of his government was to abolish the privileges, and to seize the property, of these imprudent allies. The last hope of Falcandus was defeated by the discord of the Christians and Mahometans: they fought in the capital; several thousands of the latter were slain; but their surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and disturbed above thirty years the peace of the island. By the policy of Frederic the Second, sixty thousand Saracens were transplanted to Nocera in Apulia. In their wars against the Roman church, the emperor and his son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced by the service of the enemies of Christ; and this national colony maintained their religion and manners in the heart of Italy, till they were extirpated, at the end of the thirteenth century, by the zeal and revenge of the house of Anjou. (139) All the calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored were surpassed by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated the royal sepulchres and explored the secret treasures of the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily. (140) The young king, his mother and sisters, and the nobles of both sexes, were separately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumour of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touched with sympathy for the miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line might struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony of her new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age under the name of Frederic the Second. Final extinction of the Normans, A.D. 1204. Ten years after this revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the house of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the East, were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished nations.
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