of the Alps, who had been allured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm of a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of mount Garganus in Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition of the archangel Michael, they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, but who soon revealed himself as a rebel, a fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name was Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt, was compelled to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited his confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed by effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled a spark of enterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but in the 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. 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 Foundation of See Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d'Italia, p. 250.) and Baronius. (A. D. 493. No. 43.) If the archangel inherited the temple and oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph. 1. vi. p. 435, 436.) the catholics (on this occasion) have surpassed the Greeks in the elegance of their superstition. See the first book of William Apulus. His words are applicable to every swarm of barbarians and freebooters; Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos 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, preeminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit.' A. D. 1038. Since the conquest of Sicily by the The Normalis Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been serve in Sicily, anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of their women, but with the command of their men." After a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose against the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the friendship of the christians. In every service of danger the Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights, or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the van, and the Arabs of Messina felt the 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 labour 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 spoil, the deserts of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten; Moribus et linguâ quoscumque venire videbant Informant propriâ; gens efficiatur ut una. And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy: u Liutprand in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has illustrated this event from the MS. history of the deacon Leo, (tom. iv. A. D. 965. No. 17-19.) x See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori Script, Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253. Their conquest of and neither their avarice nor their pride could brook this injurious treatment. They complained, by the mouth of their interpreter: their complaint was disregarded; their interpreter was scourged; the sufferings were his; the insult and resentment belonged to those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to the Italian continent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized in their indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the debt. Above Apulia, twenty years after the first emigration, A. D. 1040-1043. the Normans took the field with no more than seven hundred horse and five hundred foot; and after the recall of the Byzantine legions from the Sicilian war, their numbers are magnified to the amount of threescore thousand men. Their herald proposed the option of battle or retreat; " of battle," was the unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stoutest warriors, with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground the horse of the Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult was concealed from the imperial troops; but in two successive battles they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. In the plains of Cannæ, 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 æra we may date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts were chosen by the popular suffrage; and age, birth, and merit were the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were appropriated to their use; and each count erected a fortress in the midst of his lands, and at the head of his vassals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citadel of the republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to each of the twelve counts; and the national concerns were regulated by this military senate. The first of his peers, their president and general, was entitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was conferred on William of the iron arm, who, in the y Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war, and the conquest of Apulia, (I. i. c. 7, 8, 9. 19.) The same events are described by Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 741-743. 755, 756.) and Zonaras; (tom. ii. p. 237, 238.) aud the Greeks are so hardened to disgrace, that their narratives are impartial enough. z Cedrenus specifies the rayua of the Obsequiem, (Phrygia,) and the μepos of the Thracesians; (Lydia; consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4. with Delisle's map;) and afterwards names the Pisidians and Lycaonians with the fœderati. a Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores, His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris Quo donantur erat. Hi totas undique terras Divisere sibi, ni sors inimica repugnet; Singula proponunt loca quæ contingere forte And after speaking of Melphi, William Apulus adds, Pro numero comitum bis sex statuêre plateas, Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe. Leo Ostiensis (1. ii. c. 67.) enumerates the divisions of the Apulian cities, which it is needless to repeat. b Gulielm. Apulus, I. ii. c. 12. according to the reference of Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 31.) which I cannot verify in the "The Normans. language of the age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in society, and an angel in council. The manners of his countrymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary and national historian. Normans," says Malaterra, "are a Character of the 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 praise 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, 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 abstinence of a military life."e Oppression of Apulia, A. D. 1046, &c. The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted the investiture of their lands from the sovereigns of Germany or Constantinople. But the firmest title of these adventurers was the right of conquest: they neither loved nor trusted; they were neither trusted nor beloved: the contempt of the princes was mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives was mingled with hatred and resentment. Every object of desire, a horse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the strangers; and the avarice of their chiefs was only coloured by the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts were sometimes joined in a 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 ; and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas vires, probitas animi, and vivida virtus; aud declares that, had he lived, no poet could have equalled his merits, (1. i. p. 258. 1. ii. p. 259.) He was bewailed by the Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum, (says Malaterra, l. i. c. 12. p. 552.) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum, affabilem, morigeratum, ulterius se habere diffidebant. e The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix. . . . adulari sciens eloquentiis inserviens, of Malaterra, (1. i. c. 3. p. 550.) are expressive of the popular and proverbial character of the Normans. d The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the descendants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import from Norway and Iceland the finest casts of falcons. e We may compare this portrait with that of William of Malmsbury, (de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 101, 102.) who appreciates, like a philoso phic historian, the vices and virtues of the Saxons and Normans. England was assuredly a gainer by the conquest. f The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom on the Normans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem Normanorum, crudeli et inauditâ rabie, et plusquam paganâ impietate, adversus ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim christianos trucidare, &c. (Wibert, c. 6.) The honest Apulian (1. ii. p. 259.) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscens fallacia. g The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c. must be collected from Cedrenus, (tom. ii. p. 757, 758.) William Apulus, (I. i. p. 257, by a guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorrain. In his long progress from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Italians was enlisted under the holy the most lofty titles and the most ample commission. The memory of his father might recommend him to the Normans; and he had already engaged their voluntary service to quell the revolt of Maniaces, and to avenge their own and the pub-standard: the priest and the robber slept in the lic injury. It was the design of Constantine to transplant this 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 forLeague of the tune. After the means of persuasion pope and the two had failed, Argyrus resolved to comempires, A. D. 1049–1054. pel 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 cast and west. The throne of St. Peter was occupied by Leo the ninth, a simple saint, of a temper most apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerable character would consecrate with the name of piety the measures least compatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was affected by the complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured people: the impious Normans had interrupted the payment of tithes and the temporal sword might be lawfully unsheathed against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the censures of the church. As a German of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo had free access to the court and confidence of the emperor Henry the third; and in search of arms and allies, his ardent zeal transported him from Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the Tiber. 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 Expedition of pope Leo IX. against the Normans, But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish war; the mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; A. D. 1053. and the pope, instead of repassing the Alps with a German army, was accompanied only 258. 1. ii. p. 259.) and the two Chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Protospata, (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44.) and an anonymous writer. (Antiquitat. Italiæ medii Evi, tom. i. p. 31-35) This last is a fragment of some value. h Argyrus received, says the anonymous chronicle of Bari, imperial letters, Fœderatus et Patriciatus, et Catapani et Vestatûs. In his Annals, Muratori (tom. viii. p. 426.) very properly reads, or interprets, Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos or Augustus. But in his Antiquities, he was taught by Du Cange to make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe. i A Life of St. Leo IX. deeply tinged with the passions and prejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert, printed at Paris, 1615. in octavo, and since inserted in the Collections of the Bolandists, of Mabillon, and of Muratori. The public and private history of that pope 18. same tent; the pikes and crosses were intermingled k See the expedition of Leo IX. against the Normans. See William Apulus (1. ii. p. 259–261.) and Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. i. c. 13, 14, 15. p. 253.) They are impartial, as the national is counterbalanced by the clerical prejudice. i Teutonici, quia cæsaries et forma decoros The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he heats the indecency of his military character was universally condemned.m With these dispositions, he listened to the offers of a beneficial treaty; deserted an alliance which he had preached as the cause of God; and ratified the past and future conquests of the Normans. By whatever hands Origin of the papal investiture to they had been usurped, the provinces the Normans. 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 quit-rent of twelve-pence was afterwards stipulated for every plough-land: and since this memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained above seven hundred years a fief of the holy see." Birth and cha- The pedigree of Robert Guiscard racter of Robert Guiseard, is variously deduced from the peaA. D. 1920—1085. sants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess ;P from the dukes, by the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects. His genuine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle order of private nobility. He sprang from a race of valvassors or bannerets, of the diocese of the 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 successively 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 m Several respectable censures or complaints are produced by M. de St. Marc, (tom. ii. p. 200-204.) As Peter Damianus, the oracle of the times, had denied the popes the right of making war, the hermit (lu gens eremi incola) is arraigned by the cardinal, and Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 1053, No. 10-17.) most strenuously asserts the two swords of St Peter. The origin and nature of the papal investitures are ably discussed by Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 37-49. 57-66.) as a lawyer and antiquarian. Yet he vainly strives to reconcile the duties of patriot and catholic, adopts an empty distinction of "Ecclesia Romana non dedit sed accepit," and shrinks from au honest but danger. ous confession of the truth. o The birth, character, and first actions of Robert Guiscard, may be found in Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. i. c. 3, 4. 11. 16, 17, 18. 38, 39, 40.) William Apulus, (1. ii. p. 260-262.) William Gemeticensis or of Jumieges, (l. xi. c. 30. p. 663, 664. edit. Camden.) and Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, 1. i. p. 23-27. 1. vi. p. 165, 166) with the annotations of Du Cange. (Not. in Alexiad. p. 230. 232. 320.) who has swept all the French and Latin Chronicles for supplemental intelligence. • Ο δε Ρομπερτος (a Greek corruption) οὗτος ην Νορμαννος το γένος, την τύχην άσημος . . . Again, εξ αφανους πανυ τυχης περιφανής. And elsewhere, (l. iv. p. 84.) από εσχάτης πενίας και τυχης αφανούς. Anna Comnena was born in the purple; yet her father was no more than a private though illustrious subject, who raised himself to the empire. Giannone (tom. ii. p. 2.) forgets all his original authors, and rests this princely descent on the credit of Irveges, an Augustine monk of 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 historian: 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. His boundless ambition was founded on the consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of greatness, he was never arrested by the scruples of justice, and seldom moved by the feelings of humanity: though not insensible of fame, the choice of open or clandestine means was determined only by his present advantage. The surname of Guiscard was applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and Robert is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were disguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highest fortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers; and while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion of his country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might distribute with a liberal, hand: his primitive indigence had taught the habits Palermo in the last century. They continue the succession of dukes from Rollo to William II. the Bastard or Conqueror, whom they hold (communemente si tiene) to be the father of Tancred of Hauteville: a most strange and stupendous blunder! The sons of Tancred fought in Apulia before William II. was three years old, (A. D. 1047.) The judgment of Du Cange is just and moderate: Certe humilis fuit ac tenuis Roberti familia, si ducalem et regium spectemus apicem, ad quem postea pervenit; quæ honesta tamen et præter nobilium vuigarium statum et conditionem illustris habita est, "quæ nec humi re. peret nec altum quid tumeret." (Wilhelm. Malmsbur, de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 107. Not. ad Alexiad. p. 230.) s I shall quote with pleasure some of the best lines of the Apulian, (1. ii. p. 270.) Pugnat utrâque manû, nec lancea cassa, nec ensis Nullus in hoc bello sicuti post bella probatum est + The Norman writers and editors most conversant with their own idiom interpret Guiscard or Wiscard, by Callidus, a cunning man. The root (wise) is familiar to our ear; and in the old word Wiseacre I can discern something of a similar sense and termination. The decXn TaνouρYOTаTOs, is no bad translation of the surname and character of Robert. of frugality; the gain of a merchant was not below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured with slow and unfecling 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 insnare 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 dissembled his elevation till the ensuing campaign had been illustrated by the conquest of Consenza and Reggio. In the hour of triumph, he assembled his troops, and solicited the Normans to confirm by their suffrage the judgment of the vicar of Christ: the soldiers hailed with joyful acclamations their valiant duke; and the counts, his former equals, pronounced the oath of fidelity, with hollow smiles and secret indignation. After this Duke of Apulia, inauguration, Robert styled himself, 66 A. D. 1060. "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, 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 | Lombards, and Saracens, their broken forces reestate 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 for ever above the heads of his equals. By some acts of rapine or sacrilege, he had incurred a papal excommunication: but Nicholas the second was easily persuaded, that the divisions of friends could terminate only in their mutual prejudice; that the Normans were the faithful champions of the holy see; and it was safer to trust the alliance of a prince than the caprice of an aristocracy. A synod of one hundred bishops was convened at Melphi; and the count interrupted an important enterprise to guard the person and execute the decrees of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy conferred on Robert and his posterity the ducal title," with the investiture of Apulia, Calabria, and all the lands, both in Italy and Sicily, which his sword could rescue from the schismatic Greeks and the unbelieving Saracens. This apostolic sanction might justify his arms: but the obedience of a free and victorious people could not be transferred without their consent; and Guiscard The acquisition of the ducal title by Robert Guiscard is a nice and obscure business. With the good advice of Giannone, Muratori, and St. Marc, I have endeavoured to form a consistent and probable narrative. x Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 1059. No. 69.) has published the original act. He professes to have copied it from the Liber Censuum, a Vatican MS. Yet a Liber Censuum of the twelfth century has been printed by Muratori; (Antiquit. medii Ævi, tom. v. p. 851-908.) and the names of Vatican and Cardinal awaken the suspicions of a protestaut, and even of a philosopher. treated to the strong and populous cities of the seacoast. 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.y conquests. The Italian conquests of Robert His Italian 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. The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces of Calabria and Apulia, of the Lombard principality of y Read the life of Guiscard in the second and third books of the Apulian, the first and second books of Malaterra. The conquests of Robert Guiscard and Roger I. the exemption of Benevente and the twelve provinces of the kingdom, are fairly exposed by Giannone in the second volume of his Istoria Civile, 1. ix. x. xi. and 1. xvii. p. 460-470. This modern division was not established before the time of Frederic II. |