Conquest

The bastion of Robert Guiscard stood menacingly on a strategic hilltop, some way back from the fertile plain of the Adriatic.

A stone keep was under construction within its palisaded walls, and large groups of people seemed to be making their way towards the city. Every building flew a flag or banner of some kind and from the pinnacle of the keep flew the striking red and gold emblem of the Count himself. Robert was the sixth of the nine sons of Tancred de Hauteville, an adventurer of humble birth from Normandy, who had fought his way to success and power. He was like many Normans of his time: brave and daring with an overpowering desire for conquest.

Hereward and his companions soon discovered the cause of the commotion. In three days’ time, Pope Nicholas II would arrive in Melfi to invest Robert as ruler of not only Apulia, but also of neighbouring Calabria and Sicily. The Normans did not yet hold Sicily and Calabria, but there was method in the Pope’s beneficence. Nicholas had been Pope for only five months and faced two rival powers who challenged Rome’s authority. The Saracens, who were men of Islam and a great menace to Christianity, held Sicily, while Calabria was held by the Byzantine Emperor, Rome’s great rival for control of Christendom. By granting Robert Guiscard sovereignty over these lands, even if only in name, the Pope was giving him an open invitation to venture out and conquer them.

Nicholas II also had an internal squabble, which required a solution. He had a rival, Benedict X, who claimed the Holy See, and had declared himself Pope on the death of the previous incumbent. Although he had been forced to flee Rome by Nicholas, Benedict still represented a threat. Nicholas needed Norman martial prowess to make Benedict come to heel. By allying himself with the Normans, and giving holy purpose to their private ambitions, Nicholas hoped to extend his influence to the whole of Italy.

Torfida was beside herself with excitement at the prospect of seeing the Pope, the one called ‘Holiness’, the man who had the ear of God himself. Once again, Torfida took on the guise of a noble lady. She would act as if she were on a pilgrimage to Rome and had decided to make a detour on the occasion of the Pope’s visit.

When the Pope arrived, he brought an entourage of over 250 people: 200 elite guards from his own private army, plus several cardinals, bishops and advisers, as well as myriad bureaucrats, servants and cooks. Not many looked like clerics; save for a few monks in their cassocks, most looked like soldiers, for in those troubled times, most men of the cloth were also men of the sword.

Pope Nicholas was younger than Torfida had imagined. She stared intently at the great gold crucifix around his neck, gleaming in the sun, rubies and emeralds at each corner. More like a weapon of war than an instrument of a disciple of Christ, his mace, embossed with the crossed keys of the Vatican, rested across his right elbow. He wore a short red cape, edged in ermine, and a tall conical cap encrusted with yet more precious stones. As he passed in his open carriage, he opened his palms in a gesture of peace to the adoring crowds.

Two powerful men from Rome accompanied the Pope. The first was the wise old Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassino, whom Nicholas had just appointed Cardinal Priest and Papal Legate to Campania, Benevento, Apulia and Calabria. The second was the Benedictine monk Hildebrand, Papal Ambassador at Large and thought to be the most astute man in Europe. The Pope needed these two men at his side if his reign was to have any meaning. Not only did he have military and political problems, he was also faced with deep-seated moral issues within the Church.

First of all, he wanted to reform the process of elections to the papacy, to avoid schisms and the emergence of rival popes. Secondly, simony, the sale of ecclesiastical positions, encouraged widespread corruption throughout Christendom. Thirdly, concubinage, the taking of wives by members of the Church, was common throughout Europe and led to widespread criticism of the hypocrisy of its priesthood. These issues led to frequent revolts within the clergy and the growth of radical reform groups.

In short, the Church of Rome was in tumult and Nicholas was planning a series of synods to cure it of its ills.

It would not be easy.

The investiture at Melfi was a grand affair. Robert Guiscard knelt before the Pontiff and kissed his ring before the Pope placed three crowns on his head in succession, to symbolize his lordship of the three domains. Each crowning was accompanied by loud cheering and a fanfare from Melfi’s walls by three sets of trumpeters: one from the Vatican, one from the local Italian nobility and one from Guiscard’s Norman army.