9. LVI. His death, A. D. 1085, July 17. jects were fatally blafted by an epidemical disease; CHAP. Robert himself, in the feventieth year of his age, expired in his tent; and a fufpicion of poifon was imputed, by public rumour, to his wife, or to the Greek emperor This premature death might allow a boundless scope for the imagination of his future exploits: and the event fufficiently declares, that the Norman greatnefs was founded on his life 93. enemy, a victorious army dispersed or retreated in diforder and confternation; and Alexius, who had trembled for his empire, rejoiced in his deliverance. The galley which transported the remains of Guifcard was fhipwrecked on the Italian fhore; but the duke's body was recovered from the fea, and depofited in the fepulchre of Venufia 24, a place more illuftrious for the birth of 94 Without the appearance of an 92 The most authentic writers, William of Apulia (1. v. 277-), Jeffrey Malaterra (l. iii. c. 41. p. 589.), and Romuald of Salerno (Chron. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii.), are ignorant of this crime so apparent to our countrymen William of Malmsbury (1. iii. p. 107.), and Roger de Hoveden (p. 710. in Script. post Bedam) and the latter can tell, how the juft Alexius married, crowned, and burnt alive, his female accomplice. The English hiftorian is indeed fo blind, that he ranks Robert Guiscard, or Wiscard, among the knights of Henry I. who afcended the throne fifteen years after the duke of Apulia's death. : 93 The joyful Anna Comnena scatters fome flowers over the grave of an enemy (Alexiad, 1. v. p. 162-166.): and his best praise is the esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the sovereign of his family. Græcia (fays Malaterra) hoftibus recedentibus libera læta quievit: Apulia tota five Calabria turbatur. 94. Urbs Venufina nitet tantis decorata fepulchris, is one of the laft lines of the Apulian's poem (1. v. p. 278.). William of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107.) inserts an epitaph on Guiscard, which is not worth transcribing. LVI. CHA P. Horace ", than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his fecond fon and fucceffor, immediately funk 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 fword. The national tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till the first crusade against the infidels of the Eaft opened a more fplendid field of glory and conquest 9. Reign and ambition great count of Sicily, 26. I 154, Of human life, the moft glorious or humble of Roger, prospects are alike and foon bounded by the fepulchre. The male line of Robert Guifcard was extinguished, both in Apulia and at Antioch, A.D. 1101 in the fecond generation; but his younger broFebruary ther became the father of a line of kings; and the fon of the great count was endowed with the name, the conquefts, 'and the spirit, of the first Roger ". The heir of that Norman adventurer was born in Sicily: and, at the age of only four years, he fucceeded to the fovereignty of the island, a lot which reafon might envy, could fhe indulge for a moment the vi 97 95 Yet Horace had few obligations to Venufia: he was carried to Rome in his childhood (Serm. i. 6.); and his repeated allufions to the doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. iii. 4. Serm. ii, 1.) are unworthy of his age and genius. 96 See Giannone (tom. ii. p. 88-93.), and the hiftorians of the firft crufade. 97 The reign of Roger, and the Norman kings of Sicily, fills four books of the Iftoria Civile of Giannone (tom. ii. l. xi-xiv. p. 136340.), and is spread over the ixth and xth volumes of the Italian Annals of Muratori. In the Bibliotheque Italique (tóm. i. p. 175222.) I find an useful abstract of Capecelatro, a modern Neapolitan, who has compofed, in two volumes, the history of his country from Roger I. to Frederic II. inclufive. fionary, LVI. fionary, though virtuous, wifh of dominion. CHAP. Had Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, an happy and grateful people might have bleffed their benefactor; and, if a wife administration could have restored the profperous times of the Greek colonies 98. the opulence and power of Sicily alone might have equalled the wideft scope that could be acquired and defolated by the fword 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 fought to obtain the undivided poffeffion 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 coufin William of Apulia, the grandson of Robert. On the first intelligence of his premature death, Roger failed from Palermo with seven gallies, cast anchor in the bay of Salerno, received, after ten days negociation, an oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, commanded the fubmiffion of the barons, and extorted a legal inveftiture from the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either the friendship or enmity of a powerful vaffal. The facred spot of Benevento was respectfully fpared, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the reduction . 98 According to the teftimony of Philiftus and Diodorus, the tyrant Dionyfius of Syracuse could maintain a standing force of 10,000 horse, 100,000 foot, and 400 gallies.Compare Hume (Effays, vol.i. p. 268. 435.) and his adversary Wallace (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307.). The ruins of Agrigentum are the theme of every traveller, d'Orville, Reidefel, Swinburne, &c. Duke of LVI. CHAP. of Capua and Naples completed the defign of his uncle Guifcard; and the fole inheritance of the Norman conquefts was poffeffed by the victorious Roger. A conscious fuperiority of power and merit prompted him to difdain the titles of duke and of count; and the ifle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom" 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 were infufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings of the Latin world 100 might disclaim their new affociate, unless he were confecrated by the authority of the fupreme pontiff. The pride of Anacletus was pleased to confer a First king title, which the pride of the Norman had ftooped of Sicily, to folicit 10; but his own legitimacy was attacked Dec. 25 by the adverse election of Innocent the fecond; A. D. and while Anacletus fat in the Vatican, the fuc A. D. 1130, 1139, July 25. ΤΟΙ cefsful 99 A contemporary hiftorian of the acts of Roger from the year 1127 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the confent of the barons, and the ancient royalty of Sicily and Palermo, without introducing pope Anacletus (Alexand. Cœnobii Telefini Abbatis de Rebus geftis Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 607–645.). 100 The kings of France, England, Scotland, Caftille, Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary. The three firft were more ancient than Charlemagne: the three next were created by their sword, the three laft by their baptism; and of these the king of Hungary alone was honoured or debased by a papal crown. 101 Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a more early and independent coronation (A. D. 1130, May 1), which Giannone unwillingly LVI. cessful fugitive was acknowledged by the nations CHA P. of Europe. The infant monarchy of Roger was shaken, and almoft overthrown, by the unlucky choice of an ecclefiaftical patron; and the sword of Lothaire the second of Germany, the excommunications of Innocent, the fleets of Pifa, 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 flag-staff, as a token that they afferted their right, and fufpended their quarrel. But fuch jealous friendship was of short and precarious duration: the German armies foon vanished in disease and desertion 102: the Apulian duke, with all his adherents, was exterminated by a conqueror, who feldom forgave either the dead or the living; like his predeceffor 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 vir. tues of the king of Sicily. As a penance for this impious war against His conthe fucceffor of St. Peter, that monarch might Africa, A.D.1122 unwillingly rejects (tom. ii. p. 137-144.). This fiction is dif- -1152. proved by the filence of contemporaries; nor can it be restored by a fpurious charter of Meffina (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. ix. p. 340. Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. p. 467, 468.). 102 Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire's army, who founded, or rather cried, a retreat: for the Germans (says Cinnamus, l. iii. c. i. p. 51.) are ignorant of the use of trumpets. Moft ignorant himself! |