Jack Ludlow: Warriors

No military force, Robert insisted, however powerful, could stand against the authority of the Pope, and as they talked, these Norman warlords, it became obvious, at least to Richard of Aversa, that there was a shift in where the power lay. The more Robert de Hauteville talked, the more it became apparent how far-seeing he was in his thinking. Apart from that, the quality of command oozed from his every pore, as it had once oozed from William Bras de Fer.

‘The men Leo assembled had one aim, to kick us out of a land in which we are determined to stay. How do we avoid another coalition being formed next year, or in the years after that, with the same aim? We cannot, unless we make an ally of the one man who can bring such a force together.’

‘What about the Emperor Henry?’ asked Humphrey.

‘I was not in Rome long,’ Robert replied, ‘but I heard and saw enough to know that not only do the people of that city resent imperial interference in papal elections, every high cleric does, too. The day must come when Rome stands up to Bamberg and tells whoever is Holy Roman Emperor that it is the task of the Church to anoint its leader, not of a lay emperor to appoint one.’

‘That is an argument a hundred years old,’ Geoffrey pointed out.

‘Which means it’s an argument unresolved, but there is more.’

‘My head is sore already,’ Humphrey moaned: he was a fighter, not a thinker.

‘Byzantium in Italy?’ Robert asked, his mind back in Calabria and the services he had attended, all conducted in the Eastern Greek rite.

‘What has that got to do with it?’

‘I suggest we go to Pope Leo, and offer to him Apulia and Calabria as provinces owing allegiance to the Holy See.’

‘Give up what we have fought for?’ asked Geoffrey.

‘No, gain title to what we have fought for. No pope can hold them without military force. Let us become the arm of the Vicar of Christ.’

Leo, expecting to be humiliated, was utterly thrown when the de Hauteville brothers and Richard of Aversa entered his chamber and immediately fell to their knees before him. Humphrey, as the commander of the army that had defeated his, was the one to speak, but all present knew the ideas were Robert’s.

‘Your Holiness, we beg you to step outside this palace and give your blessing to our host assembled.’

‘Bless them?’ He had been thinking of excommunicating the lot.

‘There is not a man amongst them who does not fear eternal damnation for taking up arms to oppose Your Holiness.’

‘And that,’ Robert added, since Humphrey had seemingly forgotten, ‘includes us here before you.’

‘Amen to that,’ added Richard.

‘I…’

Knowing that Leo did not know what to say, Robert rose, which brought to their feet the others, and indicated he should follow. The square before the Episcopal Palace of Civitate was crowded with Normans, and as soon as Pope Leo appeared all fell to their knees, and the sound of their request for forgiveness rippled through the multitude.

‘You see before you,’ Robert said, ‘soldiers willing to die in the service of their faith. They are children of a Christian God and they are yours to command.’

‘To what purpose?’ Leo asked.

‘To wrest from Byzantium, and bring into the fold of Rome, the misguided peoples of Apulia and Calabria.’

Leo was no fool. ‘You are offering to serve me?’

‘We are offering to acknowledge you as our suzerain, and to hold in your name — and those who succeed to the mitre — as your vassals, the lands so described.’

Robert could almost see Pope Leo’s mind working: here was a man who thought he would have to forfeit Benevento, being offered not only the retention of that but also two huge provinces instead.

‘We see our task as building churches to the glory of our God, but we cannot do that with you against our enterprise.’

‘I must think on this,’ Leo said.

‘It is yours to take or deny.’

Suddenly, Leo raised his hand and gave a papal blessing to the still-kneeling Norman army, muttering in Latin the words that went with that, which had the men, once they had crossed themselves, rising to their feet to cheer.

Robert whispered to his brothers and Richard, ‘Try kicking us out of Italy now!’