During the early summer of the year 1053, in the fields outside the city of Civitate near the northern border of Apulia, two armies were about to collide. They could not have been more different.
The first one had the blessing of the Pope himself, who was looking on from the city walls. Before him were warriors from every part of Italy, adding their numbers to those who had already been enrolled in Germany. Facing this multitude, three companies of knights were deploying for the battle, the sun glittering on their coats of mail.
The Normans and the Popen 1046, two young Norman knights had arrived in southern Italy, attracted by the exploits of their fellow countrymen who fought as mercenaries for the numerous powers of the region. Their names were Richard and Robert, and both belonged to the most prominent Norman families who settled in the Mezzogiorno. Richard was a member of the powerful Drengot-Quarrel family. His uncle Rainulf had established the first Norman principality when he was made count of Aversa in 1030. Robert was one of Tancred d’Hauteville’s twelve sons. His three older brothers William, Drogo and Humphrey had already distinguished themselves fighting the Byzantines around Melfi, where in 1042 William was acclaimed first count of Apulia by the
other Normans settled there. However, their key relatives were about to leave the scene. Rainulf died in 1045, while William departed the next year. Drogo became the new count of the Apulian Normans and he sent his brother Robert to conquer Calabria, in the Italian far south. The cunning Robert acted more like a bandit than a knight, building his fortune by plundering and terrifying the local population. Richard too led a miserable life. The county of Aversa had gone to his cousin, Rainulf II, and so he had to be satisfied with the empty title of Knight. When he was imprisoned for robbery by Drogo d’Hauteville, Richard reached rock bot-tom. However, unexpected news from his family brought him his freedom. After three years ruling Aversa, his cousin died,
leaving a son of only a few months old. Richard was called upon to assume the guardianship of the child, who mysteri-ously disappeared the next year, in 1049. As the only surviving member of the house, Richard Drengot became the new count of Aversa by law. His days of hard-ship were over. In December 1048, an assembly of German and Italian bishops at Worms elected Bruno, bishop of Toul, as the new Pope. In February, he was welcomed by the people of Rome, assuming the name Leo IX. Leo, a German from Alsace, may have been one of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages. He fought against the corruption of the Church and strongly affirmed chastity in the priesthood. His efforts were the first steps towards the ecclesiastical reform that culminated
After more than thirty years fighting as mercenaries in southern Italy, the Normans found their previ-ous employers united against them. Even the Pope took the field to lead the anti-Norman coalition. Outnumbered by two to one, and frightened by the presence of the bishop of Rome, the adventurous knights from the duchy of Normandy did not know what to do. But they had to decide quickly: sup-plies were running short and a Byzantine army was marching from the south to take them from the rear.
under the pontificate of Gregory VII. Immediately after the election, alarm-ing news from the south reached the new Pope. Norman adventurers were raiding, torturing and slaughtering the people of Apulia, Calabria and Campania. Even worse, they had no respect for churches or monasteries. Some people said things had been better during the times of the Saracen incursions. A steady stream of delegations arrived at Rome to ask the Pope to intervene. Another menace, less obvious at first but equally dangerous, troubled Pope Leo. If the Normans continued to extend their power, they could seriously threaten the Papal States of central Italy, and with this the Church’s independence. He already had to deal with the German empire to the north, which remained an ally as long as the Pope respected the Emperor’s wishes. If Leo IX wanted to keep any semblance of authority over Christendom, he could not allow the creation of a strong and aggres-sive Norman state to the south. The Pope had strong claims. For exam-ple, the Lombard duchy of Benevento, which had fallen into Norman hands, had been donated by Charlemagne to the Church more than two centuries earlier. Summoned by its population, Leo could declare a just war to free Benevento from
the Norman invaders. Leo’s first step to counter the Norman
expansion was to meet Drogo and per-suade him to put a stop to the pillag-ing of the countryside around Benevento. However, Drogo’s authority was not universally respected, and when he was assassinated in 1051, the Norman attacks became even more violent. The situation was coming to a head. In 1052, Leo IX went to Germany to ask his cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, for help. The Emperor officially granted the holding of Benevento and other south-ern Italian territories to the Pope, but he was unable to give the Holy Father the sol-diers he requested. Leo decided to make a move that no one would have expected from a Pope: he started to assemble an army on his own.
The opposing forcesThe Pope became a general to face the Norman threat. He recruited a body of 700 skilled Swabian knights and began his march to Italy. While he was still in Germany, a stream of adventurers, merce-naries and others joined his army, swelling its ranks en route. In Italy, practically every prince and baron from the central and south-ern regions flocked to the red flag of
Saint Peter, drawn by the holiness of the cause. These were mostly southern Italian Lombards, like the troops coming from the city-states of Capua and Spoleto, many once allies of the Normans in the fighting against the Byzantines. Leo had around 6000 men at his dis-posal when he stopped at Benevento in the first days of June 1053. However, he needed more if he was to have any chanc-es of success. Thus, he also planned to join forces with a Byzantine force coming from the south, led by the katepan of Bari, Argyrios. The meeting point was the city of Siponto, on the northern Apulian coast, just below the Gargano, on the heel of Italy. Unfortunately for Leo, the shortest way east of Benevento was guarded by the Norman stronghold of Troia, and so he took the longest way through the Biferno valley instead, making a long detour fur-ther north across the Apennines and giv-ing the Normans precious time to sum-mon their forces from every corner of the country. Still, the Normans were in serious difficulties at this point: they were on their own – no ally could be expected to side with them against the Pope. They had to rely on their courage and their swords alone. As soon as he learned of the enemy movements, Humphrey d’Hauteville, the new count of Apulia after the death of Drogo, gathered his knights, adding them to forces brought from Aversa by Richard, while his younger brother Robert came from Calabria, at the head of another host of horsemen. The combined Norman forces numbered 3000 knights plus some infantrymen, and all the Norman lead-ers were present. The plan was to meet Leo before he could join up with the Byzantines. To this end, they immediately pushed north from their base of Troia. On June 17, they found the papal army encamped outside the walls of Civitate, near the river Fortore. The Normans were still reluctant to take up arms against the Holy Father. Thus, before leaving everything in God’s hands, they decided to open peace talks with Leo (a rather ironic course of action, considering that Leo was supposed to be God’s representative on earth). The Normans declared that they were ready to obey the Pope, and that they did not want to offend him, but they asked for recognition of their conquests. If Leo agreed, they would be his loyal vassals.
Carvings on the Basilica di San Nicola, the Cathedral of Bari, from around the end of the eleventh
century or the early years of the twelfth, were probably intended to commemorate the capture of
Antioch from Bohemond of Taranto. This carving shows Norman knights with a more composite
equipment than the mail hauberk visible in the photo on page 14 of this issue. The two horsemen
seem to be wearing scale armour, which they have probably taken from the Byzantines as spoils
Leo, who most likely wanted to delay the negotiations in order to wait for Argyrios’ reinforcements, kept his silence, but the tall blonde Germans watching the scene laughed at the Normans for their short stature. According to William of Apulia, they arrogantly addressed the Pope with these words:
“Order the Normans to lay down their arms, leave Italy and go back to their country. If they refuse, we want you to reject their peace proposals and disregard their messages. They have not yet tested the German swords. Let them die struck by our swords or be reluctantly forced to leave this land, which they do not want to leave will-ingly.”
William of Apulia, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, Book II, pp. 100-105
The pontiff was unable to restrain the Germans, and the Normans returned to camp, bringing with them the news of the Pope’s rejection. To make matters worse for the Normans, they had run out of supplies. The Apulian peasants revolted and refused to provide grain, causing the Normans to go without food for three days. Faced with these circumstances, they agreed it would be better to die sword in hand rather than meet an inglorious death by starvation. They prepared for battle.
DeploymentsEarly in the morning of June 18, 1053, Leo’s German knights bowed down before the walls of Civitate, from where the Pope and the bishops were watching them. At Leo’s signal the warriors made the sign of the cross and received the absolution of sins. The 700 Swabian knights were deployed in the centre under the com-mand of Werner von Maden and Albert von Winterthur. They dismounted so they could better use their favourite weapon, a very long and sharp sword allegedly capa-ble of splitting a man in two when wielded with both hands. On the left wing Rudolf, Prince of Benevento, and Gerard, Duke of Lorraine commanded the Lombard and Italic contingents, which were arrayed without any particular order. The other
few Germanic troops remained behind the centre of the line, leaving the Swabians’ right flank dangerously exposed. The Normans did not waste time tak-ing advantage of their enemy’s haphazard deployment. Humphrey d’Hauteville lined up with 1000 knights right in front of the Swabians. Richard of Aversa led anoth-er body of 1000 knights on the Norman right, and on the left wing stood Robert Guiscard with his Calabrian warriors, 1000 horsemen and 500 infantrymen. Aware of their numerical inferiority, the Normans placed all their hopes on the impact of the heavy cavalry charge. A small but compact formation of their knights was capable of inflicting very severe dam-age on even the toughest enemy. In the middle of the eleventh century, no warrior could match a Norman on horseback with the lance.
The battle The first attack was launched by Richard of Aversa from the Norman right wing. The Italic and Lombard mixed troops, dis-orderly grouped together on the papal left, couldn’t withstand the charge of Richard’s armoured knights and almost immediately were put to flight. The pursu-ing Normans cut them to pieces. Only a few survivors found refuge in the nearby mountains. Now it was Humphrey’s turn. His
knights repeatedly charged the Swabians in the centre, displaying all their ability with the lance. Some threw their spears like javelins, while others launched the famous charge with couched lance, a new style of combat that had become increas-ingly popular. But the sturdy Germans fought back, delivering terrible blows with their long swords. The Norman charge was halted by the German square, and both sides suffered heavy losses: “…there you could have seen beheaded bodies lying on the ground along with horses knocked down with their own knights…” (William of Apulia, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, Book II, pp. 214-215). Seeing his brother in trouble, Robert led his Calabrian warriors to attack the Swabians’ unprotected right flank. As we have seen, the poor quality German troops who should have guarded the right flank of the papal army were left behind the Swabians instead. When Robert Guiscard arrived, they almost immediately panicked and fled like their Lombard allies shortly before, leaving the fearless Swabians to fight on their own. According to William of Apulia, Robert “ran some enemies through with the lance, and beheaded others with the sword… Three times unhorsed, three times he renewed the attack with even more rage (...) [He fights] like a lion, gnashing his teeth” and “does not give up to extermi-
Another example of Byzantine influence among the Normans who fought in Italy and more gen-
erally in the Mediterranean is the armour of these last two knights from San Nicola. It looks like
the sculptor wanted to depict lamellar armour, possibly the most popular body protection in the
nate the opposing Swabians with different types of death!” (Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, Book II, pp. 222-235) However, even the charge of this ’Norman berserker’ did little to change the situation. Shortly before the first Norman attack, the Swabians had occupied the top of a small hill in the centre of the battle-field. The slope and the great number of corpses hampered the Norman horses. From their strong elevated position the Swabians resisted furiously. It became a stalemate. The Normans had lost their
momentum and the opposing Germans were too few to break their defensive for-mation and move for an attack. When Richard of Aversa returned with his knights after pursuing the Lombards, the warriors on both sides were exhaust-ed. Realizing the battle was far from won, Richard ordered his men to attack the enemy from the rear. It was the deci-sive moment. Completely encircled, the Swabians had no choice but to simply fight on until they were annihilated.
Leo’s destinyLeo IX witnessed the destruction of his army from the walls of Civitate, just as Priam had seen the death of Hector from the walls of Troy some 2000 years before. The citizens of Civitate, fearing the wrath of the Normans, refused to protect the Pope and drove him out of the city. Leo, who had probably resigned him-self to a martyr’s fate, could not believe his eyes when he entered the Norman camp and saw the knights bowing down in front of him and kissing his feet. He was
astonished (and no doubt quite pleased) to see the Normans asking him forgive-ness and invoking his blessing. However, nice gestures aside, Leo had to face a bitter reality: he had lost the battle and was now a prisoner of the Normans. They surely respected Leo, perhaps even feared him, but it was equally certain that the Pope would not be released until an agree-ment had been reached. After two days of funeral rites, the Normans escorted the pontiff to Benevento. During his captivity, Leo remained hopeful that he could recreate a great anti-Norman alliance with Henry III and the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX. However, after only nine months, when it had become clear that Henry would never bring an army to Italy, Leo recognized all the Norman conquests in southern Italy. Only Benevento remained in the hands of the Church. On March 12, 1054, the Pope was finally released and returned to Rome, where he died on April 19.
Dealing with a defeated popeFor contemporary observers, the news of the crushing defeat of a papal army at Civitate was both terrible and unbeliev-able at the same time. Even the victori-ous Normans would have preferred not to fight the Pope, and, as we have seen, when they captured Leo they treated him with the utmost respect, almost as if apol-ogizing for their victory. For the average Christian of the time, it was simply unthinkable that an army blessed and led by the Holy Father himself could not achieve victory on the battle-field. In the Middle Ages, victory was often seen as a question of divine grace, rather than a matter of tactical and strategic plans. To take the field against the soldiers of the Roman pontiff was as serious as provoking the wrath of God. Thus, there were only two possible explanations for this dramatic result. Either God was angry because of the sinful ways of his followers, or the Normans had ignored the rules of an honest fight. The defeat was so grievous that probably both explanations would have been used. The Pope’s biographer, an anonymous writer from Benevento, states that the Normans broke off peace talks and attacked the papal army by surprise. In short, they won by deception, despite the fact that Leo’s army was twice the size of the Norman one.
Saint Pier Damiani and other pious men used the first argument. Quoting the Church Fathers, they stated that the Church must never take up the sword and shed blood, especially when the victims were other Christians like the Normans. The Pope had made a serious mistake. The city of Civitate would always serve as a reminder of the Church’s misbehav-iour, at least until the beginning of the fifteenth century, when it was completely destroyed by an earthquake. Of course, the reality was much more straightforward. After all, Pope Leo had done nothing more than try to defend the southern Italians from the Normans. The real reason for the defeat was to be found elsewhere. The papal commanders did not have the faintest idea how to draw up an entire army for battle. The Italo-Lombards formed a big mass on the left flank, where groups of cavalrymen were interspersed with swarms of infantry, nullifying any numerical advantage. In addition, there wasn’t what could have been called an organized right wing at all. Robert was free to aid his brother simply because there were no troops facing his knights. Morale was another decisive factor. The Normans, despite their relatively small number, were all skilled, veteran warriors who knew that a defeat would have meant their total extermination. They had the determination of men who had no choice but to to win or die. In con-trast, the only valuable elements of the papal army were the Swabians. The other troops were a disorderly and undisciplined mob who fled at the first taste of battle,
The old city of Civitate was
entirely erased by an earth-
quake at the beginning of the
fifteenth century. This ruined
defensive tower is all that
remains to indicate the site
of the battlefield. In 1820,
excavations outside the walls’
perimeter brought to light a
large number of skeletons dat-
ing to the years around the
battle. The incredible results
of the investigations disclosed
that all males carried horri-
bly wounds, clear evidence for
a violent death. In addition,
most of the skeletons belonged to men over six feet tall. Apparently, William of Apulia wasn’t
exaggerating when he wrote of “the tall and blond Germans”.
ultimately leaving the Germans without support and at risk of being encircled. Nonetheless, the contemporary literary debate on this battle proved to be a good preparation for following centuries, when many chroniclers would search in great length for the reasons behind the failure of the Crusades.
The consequences of CivitateThe battle of Civitate, though not well known to the general public, is one of the most significant events of the Middle Ages, and for a number of reasons. The first chapter of the Norman adventure in southern Italy had ended. Since their arrival in 1016, the Normans had always been somewhat divided, fighting in small mercenary bands in the service of different masters: the Lombards, the Byzantines or the independent city-states. But their great victory over the Pope’s coalition made them the most effective strike force in the whole of Italy. United under the ris-ing power of the Hauteville family, they were powerful enough to fear no adver-sary. Complete control over southern Italy was just a matter of time: only a Byzantine garrison still resisted in Bari. The Lombard warlords had all fallen during battle and their castles and cities were ready to be occupied by the men of Humphrey and Richard. That day, Robert Guiscard achieved his first battle honours during the fight against the Swabians. His deeds astounded the other Norman knights, who began to see him as a respected and successful leader. When Humphrey died in 1057, the other Norman barons automati-
MW nr 4 final.indd 33 11-11-2011 00:28:47
Medieval Warfare I-434 Medieval Warfare I-4
THEME: MERCENARIES AND MIGHTY WARLORDS
Further reading- Amatus of Montecassino, Historia
Normannorum, translated by Fransesco Ciolfi Editore. Cassino 1999.
- Ferdinand Chalandon, Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile. Paris 1907.
- Ferdinand Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter vom V. bis XVI. Jahrhundert. Rome 1859-1872.
- Geoffrey Malaterra, De rebus ges-tis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comi-tis et Roberti Guiscardi ducis fratris eius, translated by Fransesco Ciolfi Editore. Cassino 2002.
- John J. Norwich, The Normans in the South (1016-1130). London 1967.
- William of Apulia, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, translated by Fransesco Ciolfi Editore. Cassino 2003.
cally proclaimed Robert as the new count of Apulia. This is how a man who started as a petty brigand at the head of a handful of Byzantine deserters managed to become the primary overlord south of Rome. The battle was a turning point for the Papacy as well. It was the first time a Pope had raised an army himself. Under Leo IX the Church began its long struggle for temporal power. Furthermore, one could even say that the 700 Swabians of Civitate were the first true ancestors of the famous Swiss Guard. The Normans had good fortune on their side. Only three months after the death of Leo IX came the mutual excom-munication between the papal legates and the clergy of Constantinople (July 1054), considered to be the most criti-cal point in the history of the East-West Schism. The relationship between Rome and Constantinople was compromised, and the Pope lost his principal ally in the struggle against the Normans. To make matters worse, the Papacy entered a peri-od of conspiracy between the factions of the Roman aristocracy and the party of ecclesiastical reform. In December 1058, two popes were contending the Chair of Peter: Benedict X and Nicholas II. Alone against Benedict and the Roman nobles, Nicholas made a dramatic decision. He asked the Normans for help. Richard of Aversa grasped the opportu-
nity and immediately sent 300 knights, with whom Nicholas imprisoned Benedict and entered Rome unchallenged. This was the first act in a new alliance between the Normans and the Pope, an alliance which would last up to the end of the cen-tury. Such a desperate choice could easily be justified. After all, the Normans had always affirmed their submission to the Pope. Civitate was only a matter of self-defence. In August 1059, at the council of Melfi, Nicholas II officially made Richard prince of Capua, while Robert Guiscard was appointed duke of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. In return, the lords of the Italian Normans would defend the Church and its lands. The pact was mutually benefi-cial. The Normans finally obtained legal possession of their lands and the Pope secured a powerful ally in the impending Investiture Controversy with the German emperor. In the following years – this time with the Pope’s blessing – Norman ships were to sail toward new conquests. Some looked to the sunny shores of Sicily, others to the white cliffs of Dover. •
Filippo Donvito is a student of law from Milan. He has always showed a great interest for ancient and medieval military history, and when his mother told him her family descended from a Norman knight who went down to
The Banner of Saint PeterA great inspiration to the soldiers under Leo IX was the pres-ence of the Vexillum Sancti Petri, the Banner of Saint Peter, also known as the Gonfalon of the Church. Contrary to popu-lar belief, this wasn’t a white flag with the classic two-key motif. Such heraldry first made its appearance in the middle of the twelfth century, and the first Pope to adopt the keys of St. Peter as symbol was Innocent III (1198-1216). Only under pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) would the keys become the standard coat of arms of the Holy Roman Church. The Banner of Saint Peter was the unique emblem of the Papacy and the Roman Church before the thirteenth century. It consisted simply of a red flag with the image of Saint Peter, sometimes accompanied by Saint Paul. The Banner probably looked like the flags of the Byzantines, who were the first to depict the Virgin and the saints on their war banners. The standard always followed the Pope during his journeys. It was present at every religious procession in Rome and, from this point on, during the battles for Christianity as well. To be chosen to bear the banner was a great honour. The Gonfaloniere della Chiesa, or Standard Bearer of the
Church, was a very high-ranking warrior of proven courage. At Civitate, the task was appointed to a knight called Robert Ottomarset, personally selected by the Pope before the battle. Later, at the time of the Norman invasion of Sicily, even Robert Guiscard would hold the office of Gonfaloniere. The flag was somewhat of a special gift the Pope sent to every Christian leader who was about to start a Holy War. Several Gonfalons of the Church could exist at the same time. After all, it wasn’t as exclusive as the Oriflamme or the True Cross. The Battle of Civitate marked the beginning of the Banner’s military career. It would be present at the most famous battlefields of the Middle Ages and beyond. Pope Alexander II gave it to William the Conqueror before his departure for England. Urban II presented it to the knights of the First Crusade at Clermont. Sancho I of Aragon brought the flag into battle against the Moors during the Spanish Reconquista. Even 500 years after Civitate, there were still mariners of the Holy League who hoisted the Banner of Saint Peter on the yards of their galleys in the bay of Lepanto.
Italy with Robert Guiscard, Filippo started to extensively research the Italo-Norman kingdom of Sicily. He would like to dedicate his first article to his father, and thank his friends Roisin O’Shea and Jacopo Franceschini for their help.
