Jack Ludlow: Conquest

‘As what?’

Robert’s face closed up slightly. ‘That we will talk about later. Now, tell me what that papal rogue said to you.’

‘Perhaps it would be better we talk in private, brother. What the Pope said is less important than the conversation I had with the Abbot of Monte Cassino.’

It was pleasant to see his elder brother slightly thrown by that.

‘Do you trust him?’ Robert asked.

Alone now, in a quiet chamber, Robert was speaking softly to avoid waking his child, sleeping close by with her wet nurse.

‘It is you who have to worry about trust, Robert, I am a mere messenger, but I have had time to think and what Desiderius says makes sound sense, with the caveat that, if an alliance of all three powers could be raised against you and Richard of Aversa, you must lose.’

‘Think on this, Sprat, think of the time it would take to agree such a combination and what the outcome would be. The imperial throne is occupied by a child, but even grown, will a Western Emperor do battle to give Langobardia back to Byzantium? Will Rome raise an army from the duchies of Tuscany and Spoleto to see the churches of Apulia and Calabria once more locked into Greek worship?’

‘I think you do not see how much we Normans are hated.’

‘Fear not, I know that. No one who takes land and wealth off another is loved, and as for their affection or approval I can do without it. What I am saying is this: even if they could agree to suppress us, their coalition would not hold in the heat of success and would fall apart long before that as the differing aims surfaced. Also, it would demand that Byzantium do the one thing they have failed to do since the first defeat of the last Lombard revolt: send to south Italy an army strong enough not only to help to put us down but to fight the Pope and the Western Empire, in case they tried to hold what they had helped to gain.’

‘I suspect you have just summed up the thoughts of the Abbot Desiderius.’

‘The other thoughts he might have,’ Robert said, ‘are these: popes die and so do emperors, and when they do, a policy dies with them. But more important, more likely to give pause, is this. We have not been seriously beaten by anyone for thirty years: the odd small encounter lost, yes, but a major battle, no. We are not so easy to overcome.’

‘So you see there might be some merit in what he is suggesting.’

‘So far he has suggested nothing, all he has done is air a notion that has no contact with the ground. The Abbot of Monte Cassino is a powerful prelate, but he is not so commanding that he can bring this about on his own. Such a change of policy will need to be accepted by the majority in the Curia, and from what I know of that House of Babel it would be easier to get the Bastard of Falaise to kiss my arse.’

‘I sense such a thing would give you pleasure,’ Roger replied, smiling.

‘He insulted my name and my father. I know old Tancred and I did not always agree-’

‘You’re wrong, Robert, you never agreed.’

Robert grinned. ‘Enough of this, for it is in a distant future. Right now my mind is on Calabria.’

‘Tell me.’

‘It is wild country, a tough race of people, who gave even Ancient Rome trouble. The first time I went there — William’s doing to get me out from under his feet — I ended up nearly eating my stirrup leathers, we were so strapped, but I found a spot to build a castle, before I was required to return. After Civitate I had trouble with Humphrey too, the miserable bugger-’

‘Upsetting brothers comes easily to you.’

‘Take heed of it,’ was the sharp reply. ‘I had some success, Roger, but, with Humphrey dying and a succession to see to, I had to leave before I could settle matters in the right way.’

‘You gained a wife.’

If Robert saw that as a gain it did not register. ‘It’s not fertile like Campania or Apulia but it could be better and the trade they do in silks and damasks is of high value.’

‘Which is why the Saracens raid so often.’

‘When they see we can defeat and destroy them wherever they land they will cease to raid and go elsewhere, there are rich pickings on the western coast.’

‘The best way to subdue them, surely, is to take Sicily.’

‘You do not want for ambition, brother, but I would not say much for your sense.’

‘Are they hard to beat?’

‘In Sicily, yes, to them it is home. Byzantium failed to take back the island in brother William’s time.’

‘And how do you contain them in Calabria?’

‘They come only to raid and everyone looks out for their ships. Once the towns have closed their gates they must lay siege, and even if the coastal settlements are not strong, they are robust enough to hold them off until a mounted force can ride to relieve them, especially if they have a leavening of Normans to man their walls. If they move inland they are even more at risk if there are powerful forces that can be gathered to oppose them.’

‘That was your policy?’

Robert nodded. ‘I showed them it was possible, not that they loved me for it, and I intend to do so again, this time properly. They have a choice: give to me the dues owed to a lord, or see everything they own stolen by the Saracens, and that includes their women and children.’

‘And you want me to come with you?’

‘I left Geoffrey in Brindisi and I would leave you in Calabria. Together we can properly subdue the whole province, one that Byzantium has never cared much about in any case.’

‘For?’

‘The future holds many possibilities, you know that.’

‘I meant for me.’

Robert responded with a humourless smile. ‘Not to please me, then?’

‘No.’

‘A title?’

‘Not enough.’

‘What!’ Robert yelled, so loud the next sound was that of a wailing baby girl.

‘Half the revenues of Calabria if we succeed.’

‘Blood is not that thick.’

‘Then I go back to Campania. Richard of Aversa will give me employment.’

‘Old Tancred would turn in his grave if I denied his favourite child.’

‘You care what our father would think? You never stopped arguing with him.’

‘Oddly enough, Sprat, I would. Half it is, but you will have to do some hard fighting to get it.’

‘Tomorrow, out on that practice ground, I will show you how I can fight.’

‘No, Roger, that can wait. Tomorrow we travel to Venosa, to the tomb of your brothers William, Drogo and Humphrey, to pray for their souls.’

Roger de Hauteville was given the task of subduing the interior of Calabria while the Guiscard secured the western coast, where lay the larger settlements and towns, but that went by the board as news came from Apulia of a revolt by some of the Norman barons, supported by disgruntled Lombard nobles who had seen their power destroyed, naturally encouraged by the scheming of Argyrus, now ensconced in Bari. Robert broke his camp and raced back to his most important fiefs with the bulk of his army, leaving Roger to continue to seek to subdue the country with a limited force of cavalry.

It was a tough task: the fighting was hard, the landscape a ribbon of high mountains cut by deep valleys, with low and fertile coastal strips to east and west, warfare that took much out of man and beast — mobile, small-scale engagements with, always, another fief to conquer somewhere on the horizon. The land was at odds with that which provided prosperity, the rough interior parts of Calabria famous for fine cloths, silks and damasks. Started by the Byzantines several centuries previously it had grown into a valuable trade, which made the way the region had been ignored hard to fathom: they had taxed Calabria but, seeing it at the very edge of their imperial possessions, had usually failed to keep it safe from incursions.