Battle of Civitate 1053

When someone mentions the Normans, the general public tends to conjure up images of William the conqueror and the Battle of Hastings. Iconic as that war was, England was not the only place they left their mark. At the turn of the first millennium, in the heart of the Mediterranean, Norman warriors would create one of the most prosperous and culturally diverse realms in Medieval European history.

Welcome to our series on the Norman conquest of Southern Italy, and the creation of the Kingdom of Sicily.

The year was 911, and the Vikings were at the height of their power. The pagan warriors asserted they influence from the Anglo-Saxon heartland to the rivers of Russia. One such Viking was Rollo, a Norse warchief whose relentless raids in the lower sin Valley has made him the bane of the Kingdom of West Frankia. To stop this destruction in his realm, Frankish King Charles the Simple, offered Rollo land in return for protection against other Raiders. the warlord accepted, and his followers were consolidated into the Duchy of Normandy. In time, they would become some of the most influential warriors in the history of Medieval Europe.

The Normans quickly assimilated, absorbing the French language and Latin Christianity. Among the other things they adapted from the Franks was a feudal system of governance, albeit with a hardy Norman flair. Fiefs in Normandy were owned primarily by armed Knights, and maintained through the sword. In a small Duchy with a growing population, conflicts between minor lords seeking to increase their landholdings were the norm.

This constant fighting maintained the intensely martial culture of the Normans’ ancestors, and this created a problem. Before long, there were more Knightly warlords in Normandy fighting over land than there was land to go around. As a result, a gradual exodus took form. Much like their seafaring pagan predecessors, many young Norman Knights began migrating abroad, seeking land, riches, and the glory of battle in warmer, more fertile countries. Their travels would take many itinerant warriors southwards, and into the heart of the Latin world.

In the early 11th century, the Italian Peninsula was a thoroughly divided land. By the year 1,000 AD, Northern Italy was controlled by the Holy Roman Emperors of Germany. Southern Italy, however, was a patchwork of petty states. Benevento, Salerno, and Capua were ruled by Princes of the Lombards, a Germanic people who had swept into Italy in the decades after the Gothic wars of 554 AD. Much like the Normans, these hardy northern warriors had assimilated into the culture of their adopted homeland, and had quickly become Latin-speaking Christians.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire clung on to the last of their Italian holdings in the southernmost peninsulas of Apulia and Calabria. Five hundred years prior, Emperor Justinian had managed to return most of Italy to the Empire, but Lombard invasions in the following decades saw most of the country slip from their fingers. Further south still, the island of Sicily remained fertile and prosperous. Once having belonged to Eastern Rome, it had been conquered by the Arab Aghlabid Dynasty between 831 and 965. By the 11th century, another Arab dynasty – the Kalbids – ruled it. The Normans looked upon the decentralized yet wealthy lands between Syracuse and Capua, and saw boundless opportunity.

In 1017, a group of Norman pilgrims was traveling through Gargano, en route to the Shrine of St. Michael, their warlike holy patron. There, they were approached by Melus of Bari, a Lombard Nobleman from Byzantine Apulia. Though ruled by the Byzantines, Apulia’s populace was comprised mostly of Lombards.

Melus’ aim was to overthrow his Greek overlords and establish an independent domain. He entreated the Normans to join his cause, who, motivated by a thirst for battle and plunder, agreed. Melus met the Byzantines on the field of Cannae, the historic site of Hannibal Barca’s legendary victory 1200 years earlier. Here, the Romans annihilated the Lombard Rebels and Norman sellswords, scoring a decisive victory, and ending the rebellion. This initial defeat was only a minor setback for the Normans.

The Byzantine commander, Basil Boioannes, saw the Franco-Norsemen for what they were – mercenaries. Impressed by their martial prowess, he was quick to overlook their former allegiance, and bribed a contingent of Knights to his side, offering them command over the newly built Fortress Town of Troia. This was a clever gamble, for in 1022 an army led by the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry II, marched South to assert control over the region, only to be repulsed at Troia by Boioanne’s Norman hires.

The following years saw the Normans increase their prestige as the premier mercenaries off Southern Italy. They were never short of employment opportunities, as the Byzantines, the Pope, the Lombard Princes, and the Holy Roman Emperor constantly sought to undermine each other’s influence in the region. Consequently, the Franco-Norse Knights often found themselves fighting on both sides of any given conflict. This worked out well, as Normans on the winning side of a battle used their leverage as irreplaceable allies to secure the safe release of their brethren on the losing side.

 

Of all the roaming Norman bands in Italy, the largest was commanded by the enterprising warrior, Rainulf Drengot. He had fought at Cannae in 1018, before coming into the service of The Prince of Capua, Pandulf IV. Pandulf was a Byzantine sympathizer, so in 1026, the Lombard was deposed through a plot devised by the Holy Roman Emperor, who installed a friendly puppet, the Duke of Teano, in his stead. Luckily for Pandulf, the Norman mercenaries he had hired turned out to be a wise investment, for they quickly intervened, and with Byzantine aid, spearheaded a reconquest of Capua to help their Lombard benefactor regain his throne.

Emboldened by his victory, the newly reinstated Prince of Capua marched his armies to neighbouring Naples, where the pretender of Teano had taken refuge. The Neapolitan Duke, Sergius IV, was ill-prepared for battle, but luck was on his side. Rainulf, the commander of Pandulf’s Normans, and ever the shrewd mercenary, realized that Norman dominance in Italy depended on no one ruler becoming too powerful and subjugating the others, for only through constant warfare could they stay employed. In 1029, the Normans promptly switched sides and joined Sergius, driving Pandulf back to Capua. Grateful for his salvation, Sergius granted the Normans a county, comprised of the town of Aversa and its surrounding lands.

This was a thrilling development to the Northmen, who for the first time in their 15-year presence in Italy finally had a land of their own. Though nominally vassals of the Duke of Naples, the Normans of Aversa soon proved they served no one but themselves, taking advantage of the endemic rivalries in the region to change allegiances whenever it profited them. Meanwhile, a new family had entered into the peninsula.

They were the Hautevilles, comprised of the Patriarch Tancred and eight of his sons. These fighters would soon be regarded among the most influential Normans in Italy. In 1038, the Byzantines launched a military expedition into Muslim Sicily. This ended in disaster, and by 1041, their Lombard subjects had once again taken the opportunity to erupt into rebellion. Naturally, the perennial sellswords rode into Apulia lances in hand to fight with their Latin cousins.

Led by William Ironarm of the Hautevilles, the Normans defeated two Byzantine armies at the battles of Olivento and Montemaggiore. The elite Varangian guard fought in service of the Byzantines, led by the legendary Norwegian Prince-in-Exile Harald Hardrada, but even they could do little against the heavy cavalry of the Norman knights. Through typical avariciousness, the Normans soon decided that they would much rather simply seize the land.

By 1047, they had conquered a sizable chunk of Byzantine Apulia and Calabria, and organized it into the Norman County of Melfi. Their land gains became legitimized through the recognition of their ally, Prince Guaimar of Salerno, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, two parties who were surely happy to see the ever-hated Byzantines humbled. Norman rule in their Italian territories was anything but harmonious.

The Franco-Norse elite employed a harsh hand on their mostly Lombard subjects, provoking rebellions in both Melfi and Cosenza. Indeed, for all the mercenary work the Normans had done in the last few decades, the primary victim had always been the common people, who had taken the brunt of their habitual pillaging. Resentment against the Norman presence in Italy was coming to a boil. Among those watching the Normans’ behaviour in the south was Pope Leo IX.

In 1051, he had acquired temporal control of the Duchy of Benevento, whose Duke had willingly offered himself to Papal rule for protection against the Normans. However, no sooner had the Papacy gained this territory than it was promptly captured, naturally, by the Normans. This did not endear them to the Pope, who, in 1053, personally travelled south from Rome with 700 German Swabian soldiers. From there, thousands flocked to his cause, including the Duke of Gaeta, the Prince of Benevento, and commonfolk from almost every Lombard Principality.

Piling upon this momentum were the Byzantines. Led by their Catepan Argyrus, they assembled an army in their remaining Apulian territory and marched for Melfi, aiming to strike from the south while the Papal forces assaulted the Norman holdings from the north. Pope had a 6-thousand-strong army under his command, which was a massive number for the period, and it consisted of nearly everyone the Normans inflicted injuries upon in the last thirty years.

The Normans were aware that everything they had gained in Italy was now under existential threat. Count Humphrey de Hauteville mustered up all loyal levies in his Apulian realm. Robert Guiscard arrived with a contingent from Calabria, while Richard Drengot, nephew of Rainulf, arrived with soldiers from Aversa. Altogether, they amounted to 3,000 cavalry and 500 infantry. The Normans knew that their only hope of victory was to prevent Pope Leo from linking up with the Byzantine army, so they took the initiative and rode north to intercept the Papal force.

On the 17th of June, 1053, the Norman host encountered their foe camped outside the town of Civitate. The Franco-Norsemen arranged their army in three contingents. The heavy cavalry led by Richard Drengot were stationed on the right, while Robert Guiscard commanded a mix of horsemen and infantry on the left. Meanwhile, Humphrey de Hauteville oversaw archers and dismounted Knights in the centre. On the opposing side of the field stood over 6,000 men. A line of heavy Swabian infantry extended from the center to the right-wing of the Papal army, while the left was comprised of a disorganized mob of Italian and Lombardic levies.

The battle did not break out immediately. Despite outnumbering the Normans two to one, the Pope still wished to wait for the arrival of his Eastern Roman allies. Meanwhile, there was unease within the Norman ranks, for the Devoutly Catholic Knights had serious misgivings about taking arms against the Supreme Pontiff of the Church. To that end, they sent a delegation to the Pope, offering him their homage and making overtures for peace. This was a futile endeavour, as the Normans were only met by Jeers from Leo’s German soldiers, who boldly demanded that they return to the land from whence they came.

Diplomacy continued through the night, but the Normans could wait no longer. With each passing moment the Byzantine reinforcements grew closer, and lacking in provisions, they were at threat of starvation. Thus, while Leo continued to stall for a time through fruitless negotiations, the Normans launched their attack. Richard Drengot was the first to strike. His heavy cavalry barrelled down upon the Papal left to thundering effect. The disorganized hoi polloi of militias and rebels were simply no match against the impact of a highly trained, fully disciplined Norman cavalry charge. They broke without a fight, and Richard’s knights began cutting down their enemies with ease.

Meanwhile, the Swabians had begun trading volleys of arrow fire with the company of Humphrey. Soon, the German infantry marched up the hill in the centre of the battlefield, where they engaged the Norman Knights in a fierce melee. Unlike their Italian counterparts, the Swabians were able warriors, wielding their two-handed swords with ferocity. For a time, they were able to hold off the Normans.

Up until now, Robert Guiscard had kept his men in reserve, but seeing his brother in peril, he promptly rallied his command and charged into battle, engaging the Swabian right. Still, the Germans held their own, and it seemed like the Normans had finally met a foe able to match them in martial prowess. This stalemate was broken when Richard’s right flank finally managed to detangle themselves from the disarrayed mass of Italians they’d been slaughtering, and joined the fight at the centre. Overwhelmed, the Swabians knew the battle was lost. Rather than surrender, they chose to die fighting to the last man.

Following their victory, the Norman host rode up to the walls of Civitate, where the Pope had taken refuge. Some sources claim that Leo surrendered himself to the Normans to prevent further bloodshed, while others assert that the townsfolk of Civitate threw him out on his rear. Either way, the Normans took him hostage, and held him captive at Benevento for nine months. When the Byzantine army heard of the Papal defeat, they became thoroughly demoralized and retreated back home. Being good Catholics, the Normans treated the Pope less like a prisoner, and more like an honoured guest, but this hospitality came at a price.

Leo IX was forced to officially recognize the Norman territory in Italy and promise to never again take up arms against them. The treaty of Melfi in 1059 ratified the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria as a legal polity, with Robert “Guiscard” de Hauteville as its Duke. In less than forty short years, the Normans had entered the sun-kissed lands of southern Italy, first as pilgrims, then as mercenaries, and finally as conquerors. Their foothold in this land was secured, and they were here to stay.