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) Their 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. 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.(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 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: 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) 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 (19) See the first book of William Apulus. His words are applicable to every swarm of Barbarians and freebooters. Si vicinorum quis perniciosus ad illos Confugiebat, eum gratanter suscipiebant; Moribus et lingua quoscunque venire videbant Informant propria: gens efficiatur ut una. And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy: Pars parat, exiguæ vel opes aderant quia nullæ ; (20) 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). (21) See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253. (22) Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war, and the conquest of Apulia (1. 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); and the Greeks are so hardened to disgrace, that their narratives are impartial enough." (23) Cedrenus specifies the rayna of the Obsequiem (Phrygia), and the uspos of the Thracesians (Lydia; consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4, with Delisle's map); and afterward names the Pisidians and Lycaonians, with the fœderati 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 era 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 were allotted to each of the twelve counts; and their 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) 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 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,(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 abstinence of a military life."(28) [A. D. 1046.] 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, à horse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the strangers ;(29) (24) Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores, Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et ætas, His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris And after speaking of Melphi, William Apulus adds, Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere plateas, Leo Ostiensis (1. ii. c. 67,) enumerates the divisions of the Apulian cities, which it is needless to repeat. (25) Gulielm. Appulus, 1. ii. c. 12, according to the reference of Giannone (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 31), which I cannot verify in the original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas vires, probitas animi, and vivida vitus; and 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. (26) 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. (27) 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. (28) We may compare this portrait with that of William of Malmsbury (de Gestis Anglorum, 1. iii. p 101, 102), who appreciates, like a philosophic historian, the vices and virtues of the Saxons and Normans England was surely a gainer by the conquest. (20) The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy vemon on the Normans. Videns indisciplinatam et 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;(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 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 fortune. After the means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to destroy; the Latin powers were solicited against the common enemy; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the two emperors of the East and West. The throne of St. Peter was occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint,(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 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 private revenge; and the valiant Drogo was murdered in a church. But his spirit survived in his brother Humphrey, the third count of Apulia. The assassins were chastised; and the son of Melo, overthrown and wounded, was driven from the field to hide his shame behind the walls of Bari, and to await the tardy succour of his allies. But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish war; the mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of repassing the Alps with a German army, was accompanied only by a guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine. In his long progress from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Italians was enlisted under the holy standard;(33) the priest and the robber slept in alienam gentem Normannorum, 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. (30) The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c. must be collected from Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 757, 758), William Apulus (1. i. p. 257, 258, l. ii. p. 359), and the chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Protospata (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44), and an anonymous writer (Antiquitat. Italiæ medii Ævi, tom. i. p. 31-35). This last is a fragment of some value. (31) Argyrus received, says the anonymous chronicle of Bari, imperial letters, Foderatus et Patriciatûs, et Catapani et Vestatus. 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 Ducange to make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe. (32) 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, octavo, and since inserted in the collections of the Bollandists, of Mabillon, and of Muratori. The public and private history of that pope is diligently treated by M. de St. Marc (Abregé, tom. ii. p. 140-210, and p. 25-95, 2d column). (33) See the expedition of Leo IX. against the Normans. See William Apulus (1. ii. p. 259-261,) and 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. 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 unskilful in the management of the horse and 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 twohanded swords. After a severe conflict, they were encompassed by the squadrons returning from the pursuit; and died in their 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. 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 twelvepence was afterward stipulated for every ploughland: and since this memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained aboye seven hundred years a fief of the Holy See.(36) [A. D. 1020-1085.] The pedigree of Robert Guiscard(37) is variously Jeffrey Malaterra (1. i. c. 13, 14, 15, p. 253). They are impartial, as the national, is counterbalanced by the clerical, prejudice. The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he heats himself a little in the battle. Two of his similes from hawking and sorcery are descriptive of manners. (35) 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 (lugens 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. (36) 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 an honest but dangerous confession of the truth. (37) The birth, character, and first actions of Robert Guiscard, may be found in Jeffrey Malaterra (1. i. c. 3, 4. 11. 16, 17, 18. 38, 39, 40), William Apulus (1. ii. p 260-262), William Gemeticensis or of Jumieges (1. xi. c. 30, p. 663, 664, edit. Camden,) and Anne Comnena (Alexiad. I. i. p. 23–27, I. vi. p. 165, 166), with 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 sprung from a race of valvassors or bannerets, of the diocess 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 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 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.(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, the annotations of Ducange (Not. in Alexiad. p. 230–232. 320), who has swept all the French and Latin Chronicles for supplemental intelligence. (38) Ο δε Ρομπέρτος (a Greek corruption) στος ην Νορμαννος το γενος, την τυχην άσημος....Again, εξ αφανώς πανυ τυχης περιφανης. And elsewhere (l. iv. p. 84), απο εσχατης πενίας και τυχης αφανες. Aune Comnena was born in the purple; yet her father was no more than a private though illustrious subject, who raised himself to the empire. (39) Giannone (tom. ii. p. 2,) forgets all his original authors, and rests this princely descent on the credit of Inveges, an Augustine monk of 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 tienne) to be the father of Tancred of Hauteville: a most strange and stupendous blunder! The sons of Tancred fought in Apulia, before William H. was three years old (A. D. 1037). (40) The judgment of Ducange 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 vulgarium statum et conditionem illustris habita est, quæ nec humi reperet nec altum quid tumeret" Wilhelm. Malmsbur. de Gestis Anglorum, 1. iii. p. 107. Not. ad Alexiad. p. 230). (41) I shall quote with pleasure some of the best lines of the Apulian (1. ii. p. 270): Pugnas utrâque manû, nec lancea cassa, nec ensis Cassus crat, quocunque manû deducere vellet. Ter dejectus equo, ter viribus ipse resumptis Nullus in hoc bello sicuti post bella probatum est (42) 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 Wise VOL. IV.-F |