The Normans: From Raiders To Kings Part 4

Alexius regrouped in the Balkan city of Ohrid,34 and a few months later he tried again. This time he had his men scatter nails across the center of the field the night before the battle, hoping to cripple the Norman cavalry as they charged. Again Bohemond was warned, and in the morning he held his center back and ordered his wings to collapse on the Byzantine army. They broke almost immediately and this time Bohemond pursued Alexius into the Balkan Mountains, capturing Ohrid, the emperor's previous city of refuge.

Although Bohemond had been successful at every turn, that winter was a demoralizing one. There was little food and less money to be had, and the Norman troops hadn't been paid for several months. Some began to question exactly what they were doing in a strange and inhospitable land. Constantinople, which had seemed so close a year ago, now seemed increasingly distant. That spring, Alexius attacked for the third time. The Normans were occupying the ancient Greek city of Larissa birthplace of Achilles when the imperial standards appeared and began to advance. Bohemond immediately charged, chasing the fleeing Byzantines for several miles. Alexius, however, wasn't with them; he was leading the main army into the Norman camp, capturing two years' worth of spoils.

Thinking he had won another victory, Bohemond was relaxing by a river, eating grapes and lampooning yet another example of Byzantine cowardice when the message reached him that his camp was under attack. He raced back with his cavalry, but was too late. He managed to repulse an overeager Byzantine charge, but was forced to retreat and collect his scattered men, abandoning all the territory he had conquered that year to Alexius.

The emperor sensed that the tide was turning in his favor, and he opened up secret negotiations with Bohemond's officers. He cleverly suggested that they demand their full pay, knowing that with the recent loss of supplies, Bohemond had no way of paying it. He further offered lucrative posts in the imperial army (which he backed up with substantial gifts), or safe pa.s.sage home if their honor prevented them from accepting.

Some of Bohemond's officers undoubtedly stayed loyal, but enough of them demanded their pay that he was forced to return to Italy to raise the money. The moment he was gone, whatever morale remained collapsed and with one exception, his officers defected to Alexius. Bohemond received word of their treachery as he was boarding his ship in the Dalmatian seaport. The war was lost. Not by any glorious defeat, but by a thousand cuts. Perhaps not wanting to face his father until tempers had a time to cool, Bohemond wintered on the Dalmatian coast, waiting until the spring to return to Italy.

Fortunately for Bohemond, Guiscard was not particularly upset. He had had his own hands full putting down the Italian revolt, but he had settled it in such a ruthless fashion that it would take more gold than Alexius had to stir up trouble again. Now the emperor would have his undivided attention. That October of 1084 Guiscard and his four adult sons sailed again. They were intercepted by the Venetian navy, which scattered them, but when the fastest ships left prematurely to inform Venice of the great victory, the Normans rallied and managed to defeat them.

It was too late in the season for much more campaigning, so the Normans wintered on Corfu. While they were confined, Bohemond came down with a fever and obtained permission from his father to return to Italy to convalesce. In his absence Guiscard caught the fever as well, and after lingering a few months he died.

Bohemond was the natural choice to succeed him. Not only was he battle-seasoned, commanding, and ambitious, but the only serious rival, his half-brother Roger Borsa35 was just thirteen years old, and was already displaying the nervous incompetence that would be the hallmark of his later years. But fatefully, Roger Borsa or more correctly his mother was present at Guiscard's deathbed while Bohemond was away in Italy. She convinced the a.s.sembled Normans that her son a legitimate heir was the only choice to inherit Guiscard's lands and t.i.tles. Surprisingly, she found a powerful ally for this argument in Bohemond's uncle, Roger of Sicily. Whoever was chosen would technically be his senior colleague, and he naturally wanted someone he could manipulate. Bohemond, still recovering in Italy was dispossessed of his inheritance for a second time.

Roger Borsa and his mother had pulled off a clever coup, but if they thought the matter was settled, they didn't know Bohemond very well. He was furious, and as soon as his uncle was safely back in Sicily, he started a rebellion. Roger Borsa tried to buy off his half-brother with the best part of southern Apulia, but that only encouraged Bohemond to try for more land. Bohemond crossed the border into Calabria and convinced the most powerful of his brother's va.s.sals there to switch loyalty. The revolt gradually spread throughout Calabria until Roger Borsa desperately called for his uncle's help. The elder Roger responded to maintain the status quo, and forced Bohemond to agree to a truce, essentially allowing him to keep what he had conquered. This uneasy peace lasted for three years until Roger Borsa fell seriously ill with a fever. a.s.suming that his half-brother was dead, Bohemond moved quickly to seize his property, claiming to be acting to 'protect the interests of his nephews'.

Once again, their uncle Roger had to cross over from Sicily and restrain Bohemond from capturing any more of his half-brother's lands. This basic pattern continued for the next several years, with Bohemond attempting to chip away at Borsa's territory without being serious enough to draw in his uncle too frequently.

The slow-burning civil war that resulted mostly benefited Roger of Sicily. Each time he intervened, he obtained more concessions from his weak nephew. Family relations all around were understandably strained.

In the summer of 1096, the city of Amalfi rebelled against Borsa and a frustrated Bohemond was summoned by their uncle Roger to join them as a sign of family solidarity against the rebels. After nine years of a fruitless civil war, it was clear to a depressed Bohemond that his uncle would never allow him to have any significant power. Just as he was resigning himself to this fate, however, a new opportunity presented itself. The year before, Pope Urban II had put out a great call for a 'crusade' to free the Holy Land, and eager knights had begun to trickle into southern Italy in search of a sea pa.s.sage. At first they had been mostly Italian, and Bohemond had ignored them as a fad, but as he sat before the walls of Amalfi larger groups of French knights began to appear, and he realized the international scope of the movement.

He would never be more than an upstart in Italy, forever held down by his uncle, but now his father's old dream beckoned to the east. If he couldn't claim a t.i.tle here in the west he could carve out a kingdom for himself in the Levant, and the crusade would provide the perfect cover. All that was left was for him to announce his intentions, which he did with considerable panache. In the middle of the siege he called a great a.s.sembly where he dramatically swore to liberate Jerusalem and called all good Christians to join him. He then took off his rich, scarlet cloak and ripped it up to make crosses for his va.s.sals and those who were quickest to kneel. The bulk of those present eagerly joined in, providing him with an army suitable to his rank, while depriving the two Rogers of theirs at the same time. His annoyed kinsman had no choice but to abandon the siege.

The Crusades are usually thought of as single armies, or single waves of armies, launching themselves in a certain year. However, they were more like continuous movements; not armies so much as armed men moving in ebbs and flows to the East. There was no single route they chose to travel, and no single recognized leader, just a vague agreement of the leading princes to gather at Constantinople.

The lack of an overall commander meant almost certain bickering and disorganization, but Bohemond correctly saw it also as a golden opportunity. Of all the princes, he was by far the most experienced and ambitious. If a general commander was needed, and it almost certainly would be, he was the natural candidate. Always with an eye to the future, he was careful to act the part of dignified statesman.

While the forces led by other princes behaved with reckless abandon, pillaging their way across Byzantine territory and frequently skirmishing with their imperial escorts, Bohemond was an example of order and decorum. Everything had been carefully prepared beforehand. Together with his nephew Tancred36 and a small but very well-trained army, Bohemond set sail from the Italian town of Bari and landed his men at various points on the Dalmatian coast in order not to overwhelm local food supplies. He had taken the precaution of forbidding looting on pain of death so as to prevent the ill-will that usually accompanied a march through foreign territory.

The route he chose was a difficult one twelve hundred meters above sea level through mountain pa.s.ses in the early winter but his planning was such that he made it without incident into western Macedonia by Christmas. From there he traveled along the Via Egnatia, the same road on which a decade before he had marched with his father in their failed bid to conquer Constantinople. This time, of course, he was on his best behavior, scrupulously maintaining cordial relations with the imperial guard which was sent to keep tabs on his progress.

At Epirus he sent a messenger to Constantinople, asking for an audience with emperor Alexius. He wasn't the first crusader to reach the imperial city, and he was anxious to see what the other western leaders had agreed to. Most of all, he wanted to make sure that none of his rivals had received special treatment from the emperor.

Westerner knights tended to a.s.sume that the Byzantines were soft and weak, but Bohemond knew better than any how powerful the empire still was. It was by far the most significant Christian state in the Near East, and without its support, no permanent success could be achieved. Friendship would also have other benefits. A special recognition from Alexius would put him in control of all crusader dealings with the empire; he would be the pivotal figure of the grand Christian alliance, and the de facto leader of the crusade.

The treatment he received when he reached Constantinople was encouraging. After a stay of only a single night37 in the monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian he was given a special escort to the imperial palace, an honor accorded to no other westerner. There he was showered with gifts and impressive-sounding (although empty) t.i.tles, and admitted into the emperor's presence.

Once there, standing before the immense imperial throne, complete with golden lions that would stand up and roar at the touch of a lever, he was asked to take an oath of fealty to Alexius and to promise to return any land he conquered to the empire. He gave it without a moment's hesitation, and in return asked to be named Grand Domestic of the East the commander-in-chief of all imperial forces in Asia.

Bohemond had played his part to perfection, but the emperor Alexius was too perceptive to be taken in by him. Outwardly he gave every sign of embracing Bohemond, but he didn't trust him an inch, and he had no intention of increasing his already dangerous power. He had hoped to p.a.w.n off Bohemond with expensive gifts, and was now slightly embarra.s.sed that he had asked so boldly for a t.i.tle. So he stalled for time, saying that the time wasn't right to name him Grand Domestic, while vaguely hinting that he could earn it with a show of energy and loyalty.

That was the best Bohemond could get, so with a few parting pleasantries and a promise by the emperor to send troops and food with him, Bohemond withdrew and rejoined his army. They were ferried across the Bosphorus and marched to Nicaea where the main Crusader army was already besieging the city. Thanks to his timely arrival and the much-needed supplies, Bohemond saw an immediate surge in his popularity. This was increased when he defeated a Turkish relieving army, triumphantly binding the Muslim captives with the very ropes they had brought to tie up the Crusaders.

Bohemond's run of good luck continued with the fall of Nicaea. Relations with Byzantium plummeted when the Turks decided to surrender to the Byzantine contingent who slipped into the city at night and refused to let the Crusaders enter to engage in the traditional three days of pillaging. Under the circ.u.mstances, his failure to get Alexius' endors.e.m.e.nt, was now if anything a badge of honor.

When the army decided to move on in the direction of Antioch, Bohemond suggested that they split in half to make it easier to find supplies. He accompanied the advance group while his main compet.i.tor, Raymond of Toulouse, the only other crusader of comparable standing, took control of the second wing traveling a day behind. Near the town of Dorylaeum, Bohemond was ambushed, but thanks to his quick thinking, disaster was averted. A message was sent to Raymond to hurry, while the Turks, who mistakenly believed that they had trapped the entire army, repeatedly attacked. When Raymond appeared with a fresh group of knights the Turks fled, leaving the treasury and household goods of their emir behind.

The victory was credited to both commanders, and the entire army spent a welcome respite among the orchards and streams of the nearby old Byzantine city of Iconium. The Turks made one more attempt to stop them from crossing the Taurus Mountains, but this time Bohemond nearly defeated them by himself, charging straight at the emir and engaging him in single combat. Unnerved, the Turks fled, abandoning any further attempt to block the Crusaders' path. That night a comet flared in the sky, seeming to symbolize both the victory and Bohemond's stratospheric prestige.

The Norman, as always, sensing an opportunity, detached himself from the main army and went off to liberate several neighboring cities. These he discreetly turned over to the emperor as proof of his good faith, and a subtle reminder that he was still available for appointment as Grand Domestic of the East. In his absence, a rumor reached the Crusader camp that Antioch was unguarded, and Raymond of Toulouse, still smarting from Bohemond's string of victories, quickly dispatched five hundred men to occupy it in his name.

Unfortunately for Raymond, the rumor turned out to be false, as Muslim reinforcements were pouring into Antioch. His men arrived to find it impregnable, an opinion which the rest of the army shared when they showed up several weeks later.

Antioch was one of the great cities of the East, and had only been captured from the Byzantines by Muslim forces twelve years before by treachery. The city spread three and a half square miles across the valley floor at the foot of Mount Silpius, and was surrounded by walls built by emperor Justinian more than five hundred years earlier, complete with six major gates and studded with four hundred towers. Inside the circuit of those walls rose a spur of the mountain, at whose thousand-foot summit was a ma.s.sive citadel. The mountainous terrain made approach from the south, east, or west difficult, while at the same time the sheer length of the walls made a siege virtually impossible. Bohemond had been looking for a suitable eastern capital for himself, and the moment he saw Antioch's magnificent defenses he realized that he had found it. The stated goal of the crusade was to liberate Jerusalem, but if he could install himself here there would be no need to go a step further.

The Crusaders constructed three siege towers, and attempted to starve the city into submission, but they simply lacked the numbers to cut it off completely. The Orontes river supplied it with fresh water, and foraging parties easily evaded crusader patrols. Even worse, the Crusaders soon exhausted the surrounding food supply, and were often ambushed by roving bands of defenders. With the winter came earthquakes and freezing snowstorms, while in the night sky the aurora borealis flashed, adding fear to the general gloom. Several desperate attempts to take the city failed miserably and news arrived that an enormous Muslim relief army under the command of the terrible Kerbogha of Mosul was on its way. By the spring, one in seven crusaders was dying of hunger, and ma.s.s defections began.

Bohemond had long since come to the conclusion that Antioch was impossible to take by a.s.sault, and if force wasn't an option, then duplicity was clearly the key. Somehow, he contacted a traitor inside the city who agreed to surrender one of the defensive towers to him. All that was left was for Bohemond to choose his moment.

First he had to get rid of any rival claims to the city. There was still a small Byzantine contingent with the army that was hoping to take control of Antioch once it was captured. Bohemond summoned its leader into his tent and hinted that there was a plan to murder him, which he of course had regrettably been unable to stamp out. Although false, this rumor was easy enough to believe, and the next day the man abruptly left with his retinue. Bohemond turned around and announced that the Byzantines had left out of cowardice, abandoning them all to their fate. The Crusaders had given an oath that they would return Antioch to the empire, but now that could safely be ignored.

Bohemond next announced that he was contemplating leaving because of pressing needs in Italy. His words had the appropriate effect. He had played a leading role in every military encounter and the thought of losing him now as Kerbogha was closing in terrified the army. The Crusading princes, of course, saw it for the bl.u.s.ter that it was, but they were powerless in the face of public opinion. When Bohemond then floated the idea that Antioch would be an acceptable compensation to any losses sustained at home, even Raymond of Toulouse had to bow to the inevitable.

After they had agreed to give him the city, he confided that he had a contact on the inside and told them his plan. The army would break camp and march out as if to confront the approaching Kerbogha. Under cover of darkness they would return and slip into the city through an unguarded postern gate that the traitor would leave unlocked.

Two hours before dawn, Bohemond led sixty soldiers up a ladder, and quickly took over two nearby towers and the walls between. With the help of the native Christians of the city, a city gate was flung open and the army poured inside. By nightfall there wasn't a Turk alive. More than seven months after they had first arrived, Antioch was finally in Crusader hands.

The ordeal wasn't quite over, however. Although the city had fallen, the citadel was still controlled by the Turks. Bohemond had been wounded in his lone attempt to take it, and (far more seriously) Kerbogha was on his way with an army seventy-five-thousand strong. The first problem was easy enough to deal with. Bohemond built a wall around the citadel to prevent an attack from it, and turned his mind to the defense of his new city. Two days later Kerbogha arrived.

The Crusaders were in a desperate situation. The seven month siege had depleted the city's food supplies and there had been no time to restock them. The situation was so dire that some knights resorted to slaughtering their own horses for food. To make matters worse, deserters had informed Kerbogha of the situation. He attempted a ferocious a.s.sault against the section of walls that Bohemond was defending, and was only beaten back with the greatest difficulty. Well aware that the Crusaders were on the verge of collapse, he settled back into a siege.

Only a miracle could save the trapped Christians now, but fortunately for them, a miracle arrived. A French hermit named Peter Bartholomew claimed that a saint had appeared and revealed to him the site of the Holy Lance the spear that the centurion had used to pierce Christ's side. a.s.sisted by the hosts of heaven and led by this powerful relic they could put Kerbogha to flight.

It's not likely that Bohemond was convinced by this tale, after all he had probably seen the original lance in Constantinople, but he knew the effect it would have on morale, and when Peter dramatically dug beneath the floor of the city's cathedral and found a rusted piece of metal, he was among the first to declare that it was real. He ordered five days of fasting, and leaving only two hundred men in the city, he marched out behind the lance for an all-out attack.

The sight of the Crusader army, with many of its starving knights stumbling along on foot, was probably more pathetic than terrifying, but despite that, Bohemond's charge was well timed. Kerbogha's own alliance was crumbling. Most of his emirs mistrusted him, and feared that success at Antioch would make him too powerful. So when the Crusaders emerged from the city, they chose to desert. Kerbogha's remaining forces still outnumbered the Crusaders, but they were unnerved by the size of the Crusader force and set fire to the gra.s.s between the armies to delay them. The wind blew the smoke in the Turkish faces, and what had started as a tactical withdrawal turned into a rout. Armenian and Syrian herdsmen, meanwhile, seeing the chance for revenge for a decade of oppression, came down from the hills to join the slaughter.

The victory was complete. The Turkish defenders of the citadel had watched the debacle unfold in front of them and knew that all hope was now lost. Much to Bohemond's gratification they announced that they would only surrender to him personally, sending one last snub to his old rival Raymond of Toulouse who was ill and had been forced to observe the entire thing from the sidelines.

Raymond didn't take the news well. He dug in his heels, refusing to acknowledge Bohemond as master of Antioch. His obstinacy brought the entire crusade to a screeching halt, but there were more than just petty reasons for his stance. Like Bohemond, he wanted to be recognized as the supreme commander of the crusade, and he was shrewd enough to realize that despite any personal distaste for the Byzantines, they were needed if the crusade had any hope of long-term success. Turning over Antioch, one of the empire's main cities, to Bohemond would permanently sever relations with Constantinople.

The Crusader leaders were evenly split between Bohemond and Raymond, and they dithered for several months, while a typhoid epidemic hit and morale euphoric after the victory once again sank. The rank and file didn't really care which of their leaders got control of Antioch, in fact they hardly cared about Antioch at all. They had signed on to liberate Jerusalem, and the longer they stayed squabbling in Asia Minor, the angrier they became.

Finally, with the army reaching the point of mutiny, Raymond and Bohemond came to a compromise. Bohemond would get Antioch and in return he would recognize Raymond as the leader of the crusade. After fifteen months in Antioch, the Crusading army finally marched off, leaving a well-pleased Bohemond behind.

It was his greatest moment of triumph. His aim in joining the crusade had never been to see Jerusalem, it had been to found his own state, and now he had one of the major cities of the Near East under his control. He was in a position to dominate both the lucrative pilgrim trade to Jerusalem, and the nearby Crusader kingdoms that were being established. When he visited the newly-captured Jerusalem a few months later as Prince of Antioch, he was received as the most important regional power, easily securing the election of his own candidate as patriarch.

Unfortunately for Bohemond, his triumph was short lived. The very boldness which had won him his wealth and power, proved his undoing. In the summer of 1100 he left his nephew Tancred as regent of Antioch and marched north with only three hundred men to campaign on the upper Euphrates. Blundering into an ambush he was captured and thrown into a Turkish prison. The emperor Alexius offered to pay his ransom if he was delivered to Constantinople, but Bohemond declined, and was forced to spend three years as a captive until Tancred could raise the funds to free him.

In his absence, Tancred had greatly increased the size of the princ.i.p.ality, and as soon as he was free, Bohemond marched south to extend it further, only to be severely defeated again. Antioch was now caught between the twin rocks of Saracen and Byzantine power, and its army was too depleted to hold, much less expand in either direction. Only a ma.s.sive infusion from Europe could salvage the situation, so in 1105, Bohemond left to drum up support for a new crusade.

The effort was a dramatic success. In Italy, crowds arrived to greet him wherever he stayed and in France, King Philip offered his daughter in marriage. He was widely seen as the hero of the First Crusade, and his popularity was such that the English king, Henry I, refused to let him land in England for fear that he would enlist too many n.o.bles to his cause. Dazzled by his celebrity status, and finding an easy scapegoat for every misfortune in the Byzantines,38 Bohemond unwisely decided to revive his old dream of taking Constantinople's throne.

With a thirty-five-thousand-strong army he invaded the Dalmatian coast and attacked Durres, the westernmost city of the empire. Unlike his previous two attempts, however, this time the Byzantines were in a position of strength. While Alexius leisurely marched to confront the Normans, he persuaded the Venetian navy to attack Bohemond's fleet, which it easily destroyed. He then studiously avoided a direct confrontation while plague and the depredations of a siege depleted Bohemond's strength. With his escape route cut off and a series of disastrous skirmishes sapping morale, Bohemond was forced to conclude a humiliating truce.

It amounted to an unconditional surrender. Although he was allowed to keep Antioch, it was only as Alexius' va.s.sal; all captured Byzantine territory had to be returned, and a Greek patriarch of Alexius' choosing had to be installed in the city's cathedral.

After a lifetime of struggle that had seen such recent dizzying triumphs, this last setback was too much. Bohemond refused to even return to Antioch, setting sail for Sicily instead, where he died a broken man three years later. His body was taken to the Italian city of Canosa and interred in a simple mausoleum, where it can still be seen today with the single word BOAMUNDUS marking the spot.

It was a pitiful end to a remarkable life. Thanks mostly to his nephew Tancred, the princ.i.p.ality of Antioch endured, but it would never be the dominant power that Bohemond had envisioned. The energy and daring of the Normans, as well as their great legacy, was further west. Even as Bohemond expired, it was blooming in the sun-drenched island of Sicily.

Chapter 12.

Dextera Domini When Guiscard died, the Norman conquest of Sicily had been left unfinished. His lands in southern Italy convulsed in the usual power struggle between his sons, and it seemed for a moment as if the remarkable Norman advance had at last ended. No obvious leader of Robert's caliber rose to take his t.i.tle, and the Sicilian campaign the most important of the southern Norman fronts devolved onto the shoulders of Guiscard's youngest brother.

Roger de Hauteville was an unlikely conqueror. The twelfth son of old Tancred, he was sixteen years younger than his famous sibling. He had always been a bit different from his brothers, less physically imposing but more thoughtful, displaying a rare talent among the Hautevilles for keeping his temper in check.

Not much is known about his early life other than the fact that he spent it on the family estate in Normandy. He probably had the same education as his siblings, spending his formative years apprenticed to a wealthier knight. By the time he was twenty-four, all but one of his brothers had left to seek their fortunes in the south. Roger might have been content to stay in the now empty family home had it not been for a chance meeting with the beautiful Judith d'Evreux. Despite a huge gulf in social status she was related to William the Conqueror they fell in love, and before long Roger announced his intention to marry her. Unfortunately he had neither land nor wealth, and Judith's father wasn't amused by the thought of some lowly knight stealing his daughter away. If Roger wanted her hand he would have to find a suitable dowry, so he left for Italy to find fame and fortune.

It so happened that Roger's brother Guiscard was busy trying to subdue Calabria and was glad to make use of his skills. The two made daring raids along the coast and within five years had subdued the region. The experience seems to have given Roger a taste for more and he suggested a richer target. Just across the narrow straits of Messina, less than two miles from the Italian seacoast was the Arab-controlled island of Sicily, now fortuitously in complete disarray.

The Arabs had first arrived in Sicily in the mid-ninth century from North Africa and spent the next hundred years wresting the island away from the Byzantines. They had finally conquered the last imperial outpost in 965 and settled down to enjoy the fruits of their labour. For a century Sicily was a relatively peaceful part of the North African Muslim Empire controlled by the city of Mahdia on the present-day Tunisian coast. But Mahdia was involved in the power struggles of the Islamic world; war with Cairo abroad and civil wars at home weakened its control over the island. As communications broke down, ethnic tensions in Sicily rose. The first Arab arrivals were resentful of the Berbers who crossed over from Mahdia in increasing numbers, and both groups distrusted the native Greeks. By the time Roger arrived in Italy, Sicily was split between three rival emirs, and a racial war had broken out between Arab and Berber. It was the perfect time to invade, and surprisingly enough, it was one of the emirs who offered the invitation.

Ibn Timnah was a rogue even by the standards of the time. He had seized control of Syracuse by killing his predecessor and helped himself to the man's widow. He then tried to expand into his neighbor's territory that of the Emir of Messina who also happened to be his new wife's brother with disastrous results. The humiliating treaty he had to sign was bad enough, but he made it worse by getting drunk and taking out his frustrations on his wife. She fled to her brother in Messina and in a rage he swore that he would have Ibn Timnah's head. The now quite sober emir was chased out of Syracuse and had to flee to Italy for safety. Finding Roger in Calabria he offered to partner with the Normans in exchange for a joint control of Sicily.

Roger couldn't have asked for a better invitation. Although it was the middle of winter and hardly the time to start a campaign, he gathered a force of a hundred and fifty knights and crossed the straits. At first all went well. The governor of Messina was tricked into an ambush and killed, and when the garrison rushed out to avenge him they were badly mauled by the Normans. Unfortunately, it was Roger's youthful enthusiasm that let them down. Seeing the chance to grab Messina, and his own claim to greatness, he led a hasty attempt to rush the walls but was driven back with heavy losses. He retreated to the ships, but when he arrived at the beach he found that a storm had driven his fleet away. For three days the Normans were obliged to camp miserably on the beach fending off the incessant Muslim attacks and trying to stay warm. Finally on the fourth day the Norman ships returned and Roger made his escape.

The campaign had been discouraging, but Roger remained determined. A few months later he tried again, this time with the help of his brother Guiscard, and the two of them mustered an army of nearly five hundred knights. The Muslims were alerted to the danger and kept up a watchful patrol of the channel, so the brothers came up with a ruse. While Guiscard positioned himself at the north end of the straits noisily preparing to cross, Roger slipped across at the southern end with half of the knights. He landed five miles from Messina and found the coast completely deserted. Marching towards the city he intercepted a Muslim baggage train carrying the entire payroll for the Messina garrison. This stroke of luck was followed by an even bigger one. The majority of Messina's defenders had marched north to repel Guiscard's expected crossing, leaving the walls bare. The moment his first soldier cleared the battlements the inhabitants surrendered and Roger's flag was hoisted above the city. The Muslim army on the coast, seeing the banner and realizing what had happened, fled into the interior.

The Normans now had a foothold in Sicily, but there was no time to sit back and enjoy it. After attending a thanksgiving service hosted by the city's Greek population, the brothers joined their Arab ally Ibn Timnah and headed deep into the island's central plateau. Their goal was to take the great fortress of Enna and deal a knockout blow to Ibn Timnah's brother-in-law, but when they arrived they found the castle impregnable. Even worse, the emir had gathered his entire army and was delighted that the pesky Normans had strayed so deeply into his territory. Seeing the chance to destroy them once and for all, he launched a ferocious a.s.sault.

It was the first time the Muslims of Sicily had come face to face with a Norman army, and it would be an experience that would be repeated many times with the same result over the next three decades. Although they far outnumbered the Normans, the light Arab cavalry stood no chance against the heavily armored knights. The battle was quick, and from the Muslim point of view, disastrous; thousands were killed or captured, and the survivors fled to the safety of their fortress and refused to come out again.

Enough spoils were taken from the battle to make every soldier who partic.i.p.ated a wealthy man. The bewildered Arabs concluded that the Normans were invincible, and more importantly, the Normans believed it as well. In the coming years they would always be vastly outnumbered, but would never hesitate to fight.

The brothers had won a stunning success, but were divided on how best to exploit it. Guiscard, as always, had concerns on the mainland where yet another revolt was beginning and needed to withdraw, but Roger wanted to continue the advance. There was no question of trying to storm Enna since they had no heavy siege equipment, but they could at least extract protection money from the surrounding towns and further erode the emir's support. As elder brother, Guiscard's argument eventually prevailed, but Roger stayed long enough to seize the town of Troina, a largely Greek settlement on a hill that enjoyed a strategic view of the surrounding plain. Tensions between the brothers, which had always simmered, began to boil over, but Roger had no choice but to obey. By Christmas he had returned to Italy with the last of his troops, and was summoned to Guiscard's court. There to his astonishment he was greeted by the long lost Judith.

Roger and Judith were a rare love story in an age of political unions. Judith's father was a powerful and ambitious n.o.ble who was determined to use his daughter to increase his connections. But Judith was in love, and had cleverly escaped him by joining a convent. There she was free from the attentions of better-qualified suitors, and waited patiently for five years. By that time her father had quarreled with Duke William and been forced to flee Normandy taking his daughter with him. When they arrived in Italy, Judith eagerly renounced her vows and headed straight for Guiscard's court.

After their joyful reunion, Roger proposed to marry her immediately and the humbled father gave his permission. This, however, brought up a rather embarra.s.sing fact. Roger was about to marry into one of the great families of Normandy but didn't have any land to give her as a dowry. He had plenty of wealth his recent campaign had provided that but Guiscard had refused to grant him any territory. The problem was that the older brother was jealous. He had had to fight for everything he owned; his early time in Italy had been ferociously difficult, and now his little brother was expecting him to just hand over some land. There was more than just petty resentment in this. Land and its accompanying revenue - would allow Roger to have an independent source of power aside from Guiscard's control, and turn him into a potential threat.

But Roger was no longer the inexperienced youth who had entered his brother's service, and could no longer be brushed off. He sent a formal request for land to Guiscard along with a notice that he had forty days to respond before Roger would resort to force. The older brother wasn't amused. Gathering his army he marched into Calabria. Roger was ready for him and the two sides were soon rampaging back and forth through the countryside. Guiscard managed to trap his brother inside a town, but when he demanded entrance, the villagers sided with Roger and slammed the gates shut in his face. At this point Guiscard realized that ravaging his own territory was counterproductive, so he attempted to end the war by trickery instead of force.

He had supporters inside the town and if he could make contact with them there was the chance to undermine Roger from within. He managed to slip inside and meet with his partisans, but the plan backfired when some pa.s.sersby recognized him. Guiscard was nearly killed immediately, only managing to save his skin by a mixture of bluffs, threats, and pleading. Considerably worse for wear but alive he was hauled in front of Roger.

It must have been gratifying for the younger brother to sit in judgment of the older for once, but Roger was too shrewd to give vent to his frustrations. They both needed each other and no petty feelings of revenge could trump their pragmatism. Roger may have taken his time to let Guiscard feel the pressure, but that was every bit as much public theater as what came next. Guiscard was brought before his brother,39 and Roger publicly embraced him, weeping loudly and promising to never let such enmity come between them again. Guiscard, for his part understood the lesson perfectly. The two never quarreled again.

The settlement gave Roger some breathing room in Sicily, but unfortunately the family penchant for rivalries spilled over into the next generation. The moment Guiscard died his sons started feuding and once again it was up to Roger, now the elder statesman, to hold the splintering family together. In between battles with Muslim opponents, he had to periodically return to Italy to sort out the latest fratricidal mess, a nuisance that slowed down his conquest of Sicily considerably.

During his many excursions to Italy, Roger usually left his illegitimate son, Jordan, in charge of the Sicilian operations. The boy had clearly inherited some of the elan of his uncle, because even at a young age he combined a mix of guile and brute force to keep the conquest going. He captured one city by stealing its livestock and another by luring its citizens outside, appearing calmly with his knights to demand the surrender. All this success, however, tempted him to try for more. His illicit birth excluded him from the succession, and in his mind that meant that he had to carve out his own dominion. When Roger returned from patching up yet another tenuous truce in Italy, he found Jordan leading a full-scale revolt to claim what he saw as his patrimony.

The irony was that Jordan was Roger's favorite son, and he would almost certainly have been left with a generous inheritance. Familial peace, however, seemed always just beyond Roger's grasp. After ruthlessly suppressing Jordan's revolt, he restored him to full favor only to see him die of a fever a few months later.

While Roger had been distracted with family issues, the situation in Sicily had deteriorated around him. Not only had his ally Ibn Timnah been a.s.sa.s.sinated, which was not such a great loss since Roger never intended to share power, but far more seriously the local populations no longer viewed the Normans as liberators. Of course Roger had only himself to blame for this latter development, as his policy of intimidation was useful for enriching himself but terrible at building loyalty. The area he had conquered was full of potential Orthodox Christian supporters, but he had been too busy extorting money to cultivate local support.

A lesson in the importance of maintaining good relations with the native populations was learned the hard way. Roger returned to his base in northeastern Sicily to begin campaigning, pausing only long enough to appropriate a local palace for his new wife. The moment he departed with his army, the Greeks of the town made common cause with the Muslims and rose up en ma.s.se. Judith somehow managed to fight her way through the streets and made it to the safety of a nearby castle. The next day Roger returned, but the opposition was so fierce that he was only able to join his bride instead of freeing her.

That winter was a particularly cold one, and although he had plenty of food, Roger was soon seriously short of fuel and warm clothing. Finally, in the early months of the next year they found a way out. Their besiegers had access to the town's wine supply which they were consuming to stay warm. As time went by their discipline started to slip until one particularly cold night they got blindingly drunk and neglected to post a single guard. That night Roger and his soldiers managed to slip into their camp and slaughter the Muslims as they slept.

Both sides were chastened by the experience, and Roger never forgot the lesson. From that day he scrupulously courted all of his subjects regardless of their faith or ethnicity. It was good that he did so, because the North African Muslims were now on the offensive. The Islamic ruler of the coastal African city of Mahdia was determined to rea.s.sert his authority over Sicily, and he sent two armies under the command of his sons to crush the Norman upstarts. They marched inland and met Roger just west of Troina in a town called Cerami. The odds were hopelessly stacked against him. The Saracen army numbered thirty-five thousand against which he could only muster a hundred and thirty knights and three hundred foot soldiers. But the Normans had an unshakable confidence, and since Roger had situated himself on top of a hill, they had the better position. For three days the Muslim army waited for the Normans to come down. On the fourth day their patience ran out and they charged up the slope, eager to come to grips. The battle was furiously contested and lasted all day, but in the end the Norman's superior discipline prevailed. Repeated charges failed to break their line, and the hours of charging uphill had exhausted the Muslims. When they withdrew, the Normans finally came down after them, turning an ordered retreat into a rout. By nightfall the Muslim camp and baggage was in Norman hands, and the Saracen army was hopelessly shattered.

It had been one of the most extraordinary battles in history. A tiny force had not only fended off an army seventy times its size, but it had also decisively beaten it. If there was any doubt about the superiority of Norman arms before, there was none now. Despite still controlling three-quarters of Sicily, Muslim resistance was effectively broken. They would never again be on the offensive or offer a unified defense. From that moment on, the final conquest was only a matter of time.

Exactly how much time, however, was unclear. Roger followed up the victory with an attempt to take Palermo and deal the knockout blow, but the effort was a fiasco. Palermo was the third largest city in the Mediterranean with a quarter of a million population only Constantinople and Cairo were bigger and it would need a sizable army to conquer. Roger managed to talk Guiscard into providing the needed firepower, but the city still had access to the sea making a land siege useless. Even worse, the campsite Roger chose was infested by tarantulas, whose appearance and painful bite did a thorough job of undermining everyone's morale. After only three months they cut their losses and withdrew, determined not to return until they had a fleet.

Guiscard returned to Italy to make the necessary arrangements, but was delayed for seven years putting down revolts and fending off a major Byzantine attack. In the meantime, Roger exploited the old struggle of Berber vs. Arab to keep his enemies on their heels. He had learned patience from his chronic manpower shortage, and was content to slowly advance while consolidating his conquests. In 1068, the remaining Berber forces on the island managed to ambush him while he was out raiding, demanding his surrender in the face of overwhelming force. To their surprise he cheerfully opted to attack instead, smashing their army with a series of cavalry charges.

The Muslims hadn't risked an open battle with him for a while, and Roger made full use of his victory by engaging in a little psychological warfare. He had messages detailing the results of the battle written with the blood of his fallen enemies, and had them sent by carrier pigeon to Palermo. When he followed it up with his army, backed up by Guiscard's long-awaited fleet, the city surrendered almost immediately.

The terms Roger offered showed just how much he had learned since the revolt of Troina. Palermo was obliged to accept the usual Norman castle, but its Muslims were free to practice their religion as long as they recognized the authority of the state. This commonsense solution, the tolerance of the outnumbered, was the cornerstone of Norman rule. It was a slow and agonizing process; the full conquest took an additional two decades, but Roger extended the same offer wherever he went. The Greek population had its churches rebuilt and refurbished at state expense, and the Muslim population, still eighty percent of Sicilians, was allowed to live and worship where it had done so for a century. The local governments, tasked with collecting taxes and enforcing justice, were kept in place, absorbing both Orthodox and Muslim into the new administration.

The only serious resistance left was from the Emir of Syracuse, the major city of Sicily's southeastern coast, but Roger would have to confront him on his own. After Palermo fell, Guiscard left the island never to return, taking a large part of the army with him.

The first step in taking Syracuse was to make sure it was cut off from North Africa. There were still Berber troops scattered around Sicily and the Emir of Mahdia was making ominous noises. But he had been cut off from the interior of North Africa by civil war and badly needed Sicily's wheat. Roger, well aware of his difficulties, cleverly neutralized him by offering to supply Mahdia with all the food he wanted through an exclusive trading contract.

The Emir of Syracuse struck back by raiding a convent in Roger's territory and placing several of the captured nuns in his harem. This threatened to set off a religious war something Roger wanted to avoid at all costs and he acted at once. Raising the largest army he had ever mustered, he sent his fleet to blockade the city by sea and marched overland. The fleet arrived first and engaged the Muslim ships in the same waters where fifteen centuries before the Athenian navy had been defeated during the Peloponnesian War. The struggle this time was just as decisive. The emir took personal command of his ships but had the misfortune to fall overboard. Before his startled sailors could attempt a rescue, the heavy armor had pulled him straight to the bottom. Syracuse resisted for a few days, but without its emir it didn't have the heart for a real struggle and surrendered.

The victory virtually extinguished Muslim power in Sicily. There were still remnants to be mopped up, but by now both sides realized the end was in sight. For the better part of the next three decades Roger relentlessly pressed on and by the spring of 1086 only the single emir Ibn Hamud was left to oppose him. He was based at Agrigento on the southwestern coast, but his power stemmed from an impregnable fortress at Enna in the center of the island. Both Roger and Robert Guiscard had failed to take this citadel, and it was clear that with the limited resources available, another frontal a.s.sault wouldn't work. But there were more ways to overcome opposition than brute force and Roger soon thought of one. As usual he prepared the ground carefully. The first step was to isolate Ibn Hamud from any possible allies. The Sicilian Muslims had traditionally received help from North Africa, but Roger managed to conclude an alliance with the Emir of Tunis, effectively cutting them off. Just after Roger's diplomats returned with news of the triumph, another messenger informed him that one of his raiding parties had managed to capture the emir's wife and children.

The only thing left to do was to plan the final coup de grace of Muslim Sicily. Robert Guiscard would undoubtedly have pressed home his advantage, storming Enna while Ibn Hamud was still reeling from his loss, but Roger had a more subtle strategy in mind. He was fully aware of the important card he now held and was careful to treat his prisoners with considerable respect. They traveled in comfort, sat at positions of honor at his table, and were granted every request short of their freedom. He deliberately took his time, rebuilding fortifications and consolidating the Norman grip over newly won territory. Ibn Hamud was left alone to meditate on the pointlessness of further resistance.

It didn't take long for the realities of the situation to sink in. The Muslim position was daily becoming more untenable, and there was no longer any hope of outside help. Thanks to Roger's mild dealings with those he conquered, it was hard for the emir to whip up much enthusiasm against him, or inspire his remaining troops to continue sacrificing for a doomed cause.

In the early months of 1087, Roger decided that the moment was right to make an offer. Accompanied by an escort of only a hundred knights, he rode to the foot of the great fortress of Enna and invited his rival to a parley. By this time the emir was visibly wavering and thanks to Roger's generous treatment of his captive family, he had privately decided to come to some accommodation with the Normans. The two of them chatted amiably enough but when the talk turned to surrender the emir sorrowfully informed his rival that it would be an unacceptable breach of his honor. Even if he were the sort of man to cast aside his integrity, he continued, his men would never accept such a cowardly act and would kill him before he could open the fortress.

Roger was astute enough to read between the lines, and he proposed an ingenious solution that would allow his rival to save face. A few days later the emir led the greater part of his forces into a carefully prepared ambush. To preserve his men's lives he n.o.bly offered to surrender, and Enna was captured without a casualty.

Ibn Hamud gratefully had himself baptized and was offered extensive estates of his own choosing. He selected Calabria, far away from his old center of power where any revolt would make him look guilty of sedition, and was enrolled as part of the n.o.bility. The irregularities of his past life were discreetly overlooked (he was married to his cousin) and he lived out his life in peace without incident, a perfectly respectable member of the minor aristocracy.

Roger lived for thirteen more years, streamlining his government, and extending his influence to the Italian peninsula. For the most part he concentrated on increasing the prosperity of his subjects and refused to be drawn into any larger struggles.40 When the call came for the First Crusade he was virtually the only great prince who didn't respond. Heavily outnumbered by Muslims in his own territory and dependent on trade with North Africa for wealth, the last thing he wanted was a religious war. He remained officially neutral and pressured his Muslim trading partners to be neutral as well, which turned out to be a sound economic policy. By the turn of the century Sicily was more stable, prosperous, and secure than it had ever been. Trade flourished, and the arts were blossoming. Thanks to the Crusading movement the trade of Europe and the Levant flowed through the markets of Palermo and Messina, greatly enriching all involved.

Roger's only regret was that his beloved Judith wasn't around to enjoy it with him. She had died in 1080 after presenting her husband with four daughters. A second marriage had produced three more girls along with two sons, before the second wife died as well. Roger was now in his sixties and feeling his age. His most pressing concern, as with all responsible rulers, was who would follow him.

The two legitimate sons clearly wouldn't. The first didn't survive childhood and the second had leprosy. There was an illegitimate son named Jordan who had proved to be a dashing commander in several of his father's campaigns, but he died of a fever in 1092. That year Roger married for the third time, and his new wife Adelaide41 safely delivered two sons. The oldest was named Simon, and the younger Roger after his happy father, who could now rest a.s.sured that his name would be continued. Six years later Roger expired peacefully in his bed, having ruled wisely and well. His military victories had been legendary, but it was his administration that had been truly brilliant. He was that most rare leader, one who not only knew how to conquer, but more importantly how to rule. He had been only twenty-six when he entered Sicily, a young, ambitious knight seeking his fortune, and forty-four years later he had expired as the great statesman of the Mediterranean. His genius as an administrator is still remembered fondly by Sicilians today who gave him the nickname 'The Great Count'.

Roger's final gift for Sicily was only apparent after he was gone. Strong rulers can leave uncertainty and disorder in their wake, but Roger had devoted his life to good government and it continued without him. His younger son and eventual successor, Roger II, was only five years old at his death, and although long minorities often lead to chaos, he ascended twelve years later without opposition to a calm and stable kingdom. Few rulers have left a finer legacy.