Malaterra: DE REBUS GESTIS ROGERII CALABRIAE ET SICILIAE COMITIS ET ROBERTI GUISCARDI DUCIS FRATRIS EIUS

Si esset unde nova et elegantior poÎtria, novo duci adhibenda esset; ut facundior sermo a iuvene, novarum rerum, ut in tali aetate assolet, appetitore, novo stilo novos favores suo merito extorqueret. Sed ne, stilum mutando, hoc quasi adulatione facere dicamur, prioris poÎtriae ordine servato, orationis seriem exequamur.

If there were the means for a new and more elegant poesy, it ought to be employed for the new leader; so that a more facund speech from a youth—an appetite-bearer for new things, as is wont at such an age—by a new style might by his own merit extort new favors. But lest, by changing the style, we be said to do this as if by adulation, the order of the prior poesy being preserved, let us carry out the sequence of the discourse.

I. Igitur Rogerio comite nepotis utilitatibus, ut eum plenius in ducatu Calabrensi vel certe in Principatu et dominatione Apuliae contra voluntatem aemulorum suorum solidaret, intendendo praeoccupato, Benarvet, Syracusiae navigio apparato, navali exercitu apud Nicotrum veniens, a radice destruendo devastat. Direptis omnibus quae potuit, viros et mulieres captivos asportat. Sicque ante Regium veniens, ecclesiam haud longe in honore beati Nicolai, et aliam in beati Georgii sitam depopulat, sacras imagines deturpando conculcat, sacras vestes vel vasa suorum usibus aptando asportat.

1. Therefore, while Count Roger, for his nephew’s advantages—so that he might more fully consolidate him in the Calabrian duchy or at least in the Principality and dominion of Apulia against the will of his rivals—was preoccupied with the endeavor, Benarvet, with a vessel made ready at Syracuse, coming with a naval army at Nicotrum, devastates it by destroying from the root. Having snatched away all he could, he carries off men and women as captives. And so, coming before Regium, he ravages a church not far off in honor of the blessed Nicholas, and another situated in honor of the blessed George; defiling them, he tramples the sacred images, and he carries off the sacred vestments and vessels, adapting them to his own uses.

Inde progressus, quandam sanctimonialium abbatiam, in honore sanctae Dei Genitricis et Virginis Mariae, in Scyllacensi loco, qui Rocca Asini dicitur, consecratam, aggrediens, devastat; sanctimoniales abductas turpi stupro dehonestat.

Thence, proceeding, he attacks and devastates a certain abbey of nuns, consecrated in honor of the holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary, in the Scyllacensian place which is called Rocca Asini; the nuns, having been carried off, he dishonors with shameful rape.

II. Qua de re comes, divinitus ira plus solito inspiratus, in ultionem tantae Deo illatae iniuriae ardentissime insurgit: classem, qua facilius circumveniendo opprimat, primo die octobris aptare incipiens, vicesimo die maii perficit. Sicque sese affligendo, cum summa devotione et litaniis, nudis pedibus, per diversas ecclesias processiones exequens, multa beneficia indigentibus largitus, navali periculo sese committens, versus Syracusam vela dirigit. Iordanum vero filium suum cum equestri exercitu illorsum sibi obvium fieri praecipit, videns naves nutu Dei agi, et, nulla aura vel remige impingente, rapidas aequoris undas directo cursu sulcare, ut facile perpenderet hanc expeditionem Dei favorem comitari, et hostibus praevalere debere.

2. For which cause the count, divinely inspired with wrath beyond the usual, rises most ardently in vengeance for so great an injury inflicted upon God: beginning on the 1st day of October to equip the fleet, by which he might more easily, by circumventing, overwhelm, he completes it on the 20th day of May. And so, afflicting himself, with the highest devotion and with litanies, with bare feet, carrying out processions through various churches, having bestowed many benefactions upon the indigent, committing himself to naval peril, he directs his sails toward Syracuse. He moreover orders Jordan his son to make himself meet him thither with an equestrian army, seeing the ships driven by the nod of God, and, with no breeze or rower impelling, cleaving the swift waves of the level sea in a direct course, so that he might easily weigh that this expedition is accompanied by God’s favor, and ought to prevail over the enemies.

Comes igitur, ostensione de obtinenda victoria certior factus, prima nocte Tauromenium applicat, secunda vero apud Logninam, tertia Rasesalix.

Therefore the count, made more certain by a manifestation of the victory to be obtained, puts in at Tauromenium on the first night, on the second at Lognina, on the third at Rasesalix.

Hic Iordanus, filius suus, cum exercitu equestri sibi obvius factus, multa inter se de iis, quae facienda erant, conferentes, consilio habito, Philippum, filium Gregorii patricii, cum velocissima sagacia versus Syracusam, omnem terram exploratum, mandant. Qui iussa fideliter complens, de nocte inter classem Saracenorum, ac si unus ex ipsis esset, circumnavigat: nam et lingua eorum, sicut et graeca, ipse et nautae omnes, qui cum ipso processerant, peritissimi erant. Omnibusque prudenter circumspectis, rediens, certamen paratum renuntiat; Deo propitio, nihil periculi imminere, hostibus audacter occurrendum hortatur.

Here Jordan, his son, having met him with the equestrian army, as they discussed many things among themselves about what had to be done, counsel having been taken, they command Philip, son of Gregory the patrician, with the swiftest sagacity toward Syracuse, to reconnoiter all the land. He, faithfully completing the orders, by night circumnavigates among the fleet of the Saracens, as if he were one of them; for in their language, as also in Greek, both he himself and all the sailors who had set out with him were most skillful. And with everything prudently surveyed, returning, he reports that combat is prepared; with God propitious, that no danger is impending, he urges that the enemies must be boldly encountered.

Erat autem sabbatum.

It was, moreover, the Sabbath.

Comes ergo suos commonens, proxima luce in dominica illucescente, hymnos matutinos cum missarum sacra executione audivit. Presbyteris confitentur, sacris misteriis initiantur. Per totam diem ibidem morantur.

Therefore the Count, admonishing his men, at the next light as the Lord’s Day was dawning, heard the morning hymns with the sacred celebration of the Masses. They confess to the presbyters (priests), they are initiated into the sacred mysteries. They remain there for the whole day.

Sequenti nocte mediante, aequore anchoris extractis, cum silentio procedentes, luna illucescente, Syracusam, ubi Benarvet acerrime cum classe sua praestolabatur, venerunt. Certamen ineunt; utrimque congreditur. Benarvet instinctu diaboli, qui vitam eius iam misera morte terminare volebat, quo navem comitis eminus agnovit, magno impetu grassans, illorsum irruit.

In the middle of the following night, the anchors having been weighed on the sea, proceeding with silence, with the moon shining, they came to Syracuse, where Benarvet was most fiercely waiting with his fleet. They enter the contest; on both sides it comes to close combat. Benarvet, at the instinct of the devil, who now wished to terminate his life with a miserable death, when he recognized the Count’s ship from afar, advancing with great impetus, rushed thither.

Acriter bellatur, sed acrius excipitur. Nam a Lupino quodam primum iaculo confossus, dum a comite, qui navem eius insiluerat, minacie ense persequitur, ipse, proximam navem de suis ad fugiendum saltu appetens, in mare cum pondere ferri demergitur. Sicque iniuriam, quam Deo arroganter intulit, divino iudicio condigna ultione multatur, poenas luendo perpessus.

Fiercely the battle is waged, but more fiercely it is met. For, first pierced with a javelin by a certain Lupinus, while he is pursued by the count—who had leapt aboard his ship—with a menacing sword, he himself, aiming by a leap to reach a nearby ship of his men in flight, is sunk into the sea by the weight of iron. And thus the injury which he arrogantly inflicted upon God is punished by divine judgment with condign vengeance, paying the penalties by suffering.

Reliqui vero, dum fugere nituntur, a nostris citato remige persecuti, truncantur. Victores nostri efficiuntur. Si Iordanus interim urbem oppugnasset, profecto facile debellata succubuisset.

The remainder indeed, while they strive to flee, pursued by our men with the oar quickened, are cut down. Our men become victors. If Jordan in the meantime had attacked the city, surely, easily debellated, it would have succumbed.

Sed pater minus provvide sibi interdixerat ne faceret.

But the father, less providently, had forbidden himself to do it.

A maio igitur usque in octobrem obsessione urbi dedita, ipsa multum recalcitrante, plurima infestatio utrimque facta est. Cives vero, christianos plurimos in captione infra urbem habentes, solutos ab urbe eiiciunt; rati nostros sic facile ab urbe recessuros. At, dum nihilominus persistere vident, uxor Benarvet cum filio et melioribus urbis, navibus duabus de nocte per medias naves nostras rapidissimo remige evadentes, sese Notum recipiunt.

From May therefore up to October, with a siege laid to the city, the city itself much resisting, very many attacks were made on both sides. The citizens, indeed, having very many Christians in captivity within the city, release them and cast them out from the city, thinking that our men would thus easily withdraw from the city. But, when they nevertheless see them persist, Benarvet’s wife, with her son and the better men of the city, escaping by night in two ships through the midst of our ships with the most rapid rowing, betake themselves to the South.

Reliqui, foedere composito, deditione sese et urbem reddunt: anno Dominicae incarnationis MLXXXV.

The rest, with a treaty composed, by capitulation surrender themselves and the city: in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1085.

III. Dum ista geruntur, Pisani, qui apud Africam negotiando proficiscebantur, quasdam iniurias passi, exercitu congregato, urbem regiam regis Thumini oppugnantes, usque ad maiorem turrim, qua rex defendebatur, capiunt. Sed quia sua virtute, urbe expugnata, patriam retinere minus sufficientes erant, comiti Siciliensi, quem in talibus sufficientem et praevalidum cognoscebant, eam, si recipere velit, per legatos invitantes, offerunt.

3. While these things are being done, the Pisans, who were setting out to Africa for trading, having suffered certain injuries, with an army gathered, attacking the royal city of King Thuminus, seize it up to the greater tower, by which the king was defended. But because by their own prowess, even with the city stormed, they were less sufficient to hold the country, to the Count of Sicily—whom they knew to be sufficient and very powerful in such matters—they offer it, if he is willing to receive it, inviting him through legates.

Porro ille, quia regi Thumino amicitiam se servaturum dixerat, legalitatem suam servans, in damno illius assentire distulit.

Moreover, he, because he had said that he would preserve friendship with King Thuminus, preserving his legality, deferred to assent to that man’s detriment.

Rex vero Thuminus cum certando resistere nequit, pretio pacem mercatus, quam armis minus sufficiebat; pecunia classem finibus suis arcet, promittens etiam, sub ostentantione legis suae, nulla classe fines christiani nominis pervasum ulterius tentare, et quos eiusdem religionis captivos tenebat, coactus est absolvere.

But King Thuminus, since by contending he cannot resist, having purchased peace at a price— which by arms he was less sufficient to achieve— with money keeps the fleet from his borders, promising also, under the ostentation of his own law, to attempt no further the invasion of the borders of the Christian name with any fleet; and those captives of the same religion whom he held, he was compelled to release.

IV. Dux autem Rogerius apud Apuliam et Calabriam sua sapienter disponens, in omnibus strenue et provide agebat: et, quamvis iuvenili aetate esset, secundum quod agebat, eum non iam iuvenem, sed moribus senem iudicare posses. Militiae assiduus, frequentiam militum amans, colloquio affabilis, muneribus largus, laborique vigiliis indeficiens, ecclesiarum defensor, pauperum et moerentium consolator, suis clypeus, hostibus aculeus, iuste iudicans omnia, excepto quod pietatis affectu obviante, in rigore iustitiae aliquantulum remissior erat. His artibus in se accrescentibus, omnium bonorum favorem brevi obtinuit.

4. Duke Roger, in Apulia and Calabria wisely ordering his affairs, was in all things acting strenuously and providently: and, although he was of youthful age, from what he did you could judge him not now a youth, but an old man in character. Assiduous in soldiery, loving the frequent presence of soldiers, affable in conversation, lavish in gifts, unfailing in labor and in vigils, a defender of the churches, a consoler of the poor and the sorrowing, a shield to his own, a sting to his enemies, judging all things justly, except that, the affection of piety intervening, in the rigor of justice he was somewhat more remiss. With these arts increasing in himself, he soon obtained the favor of all the good.

Hic Boamundum, fratrem suum, ambitione ducatus a se dissentientem, qui iam urbem, quae Oria dicitur, traditione civium adeptus erat—per quam provinciam Tarentinam et Ydrontinam spe praedae, complicibus undecumque sibi alligatis, infestabat—minus adversum se proficere videns, non quod miles elegantissimus non esset, sed quia sumptus ad id negotii necessaria minus suppeditabant fraterna pietate commotus, arcessito ad se et reconciliato, partem paternae haereditatis contulit, annuens ei ipsam Oriam urbem, quam pervaserat, adiacens sibi Tarentum et Ydrontum sive Gallipolim, cum omnibus appendiciis, et quidquid Gaufredus de Conversano sub ipso habebat cum famulatu eiusdem. Reliquos vero, si qui adversarii erant, sua strenuitate sternebat. Ubi vero minus per se sufficiebat, Siciliensi comite, quasi pro verbere ad alios subiugandos utebatur, cuius virtute plures territi minus resistere praesumebant.

This man, seeing Bohemond, his brother—dissenting from him out of ambition for the duchy, who already had gained the city which is called Oria by the surrender of the citizens—through which Tarentine and Hydruntine province he was harrying in hope of booty, with accomplices bound to himself from everywhere—making less progress against him, not because he was not a most excellent soldier, but because the expenses necessary for that business were supplying themselves less, moved by fraternal piety, having had him summoned to himself and reconciled, conferred a part of the paternal inheritance, granting to him the city of Oria itself, which he had seized, together with Tarentum and Hydruntum, or Gallipoli, adjacent to it, with all appurtenances, and whatever Gaufred of Conversano held under him, with the retinue of the same. The rest, however, if any adversaries there were, he was laying low by his own strenuousness. But where he was less sufficient by himself, he used the Count of Sicily as if a scourge for subjugating others, by whose valor many, terrified, presumed to resist less.

V. Comes ergo Rogerius, omnes potentiores Siciliae a se debellatos gaudens, et nemine, excepto Chamuto, superstite, ad hoc assidua deliberatione intendit, ut, ipso circumveniendo debellato, omnem sibi de caetero Siciliam subdat. Unde, exercitu admoto, ipso apud Castrum-Iohannis immorante, uxorem eius et liberos apud Agrigentinam urbem obsessum vadit, anno Dominicae incarnationis MLXXXVI, prima die aprilis, quam undique exercitu vallans, diutina oppressione lacessivit: studioque machinamentis ad urbem capiendam apparatis, tandem vicesimaquinta die iulii viribus exhausta, imminentibus hostibus, patuit: uxor Chamuti, cum liberis, comitis inventa est captione. Comes itaque, urbe pro libitu suo potitus, uxorem Chamuti, omni dehonestatione prohibita, suis custodiendam deliberat, sciens Chamutum sibi facilius reconciliari, si eam absque dehonestatione cognoverit a nostris tractari.

5. Therefore Count Roger, rejoicing that he had warred down all the more powerful men of Sicily on his own part, and with no one surviving except Chamuto, bent with assiduous deliberation to this: that, by circumventing and defeating him, he might thereafter subject all Sicily to himself. Whence, the army being brought up, while he himself was lingering at Castrum-Johannis, he goes to besiege his wife and children at the city of Agrigentum, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1086, on the first day of April, which, encircling on every side with the army, he harassed with long oppression; and, with engines prepared for taking the city, at length on the twenty-fifth day of July, its strength exhausted, with the enemies pressing on, it lay open: Chamuto’s wife, with the children, was found to have fallen into the count’s capture. The count, therefore, having taken possession of the city at his pleasure, resolves that Chamuto’s wife, with every dishonoring forbidden, be kept in custody by his men, knowing that Chamuto would be more easily reconciled to him, if he should learn that she was being treated by our men without dishonor.

Urbem itaque pro velle suo ordinans, castello firmissimo munit, vallo girat, turribus et propugnaculis ad defensionem aptat, finitima castra incursionibus lacessens, ad deditionem cogit. Unde et usque ad undecim aevo brevi subiugata sibi alligat, quorum ista sunt nomina: Platanum, Missar, Guastaliella, Sutera, Raselbifar, Mocluse, Naru, Calatenixet, quod, nostra lingua interpretatum, resolvitur Castrum foeminarum, Licata, Remunisse.

Therefore arranging the city according to his will, he fortifies it with a most strong castle, girds it with a rampart, and fits it with towers and bulwarks for defense; harrying the neighboring strongholds with incursions, he compels them to surrender. Whence also as many as eleven, in a brief span, once subjugated he binds to himself, whose names are these: Platanum, Missar, Guastaliella, Sutera, Raselbifar, Mocluse, Naru, Calatenixet, which, interpreted in our language, is rendered the Castle of Women, Licata, Remunisse.

VI. Comes itaque, sibi omnia prospere cedere Dei miseratione cognoscens, adiicit Castrum-Iohannis sibi aut oppressione aut certe astu, aliqua composita confoederatione, sibi applicare. Unde et quodam diluculo cum centum militibus versus Castrum-Iohannis properans, Chamutum, foedere interposito, sibi locutum invitat. Quem diversis verborum circuitionibus attentans, deditione castri et conversione ad Christi baptismatis regenerationem pulsat.

6. Therefore the Count, recognizing by the mercy of God that all things were prosperously yielding to him, adds the plan to attach Castrum-Iohannis to himself—either by oppression, or at any rate by cunning—by means of some composed confederation arranged. Whence also, at a certain daybreak, hastening with one hundred soldiers toward Castrum-Iohannis, he invites Chamutus, a treaty being interposed, to speak with him. Testing him with diverse circumlocutions of words, he presses for the surrender of the castle and for conversion to the regeneration of Christ’s baptism.

Porro ille, cognoscens, experimento de aliis sumpto, comitem ad quodcumque intenderet, fortuna favente, nihil frustra niti, aliquantulum etiam de conversione ad fidem tacito sub pectore inspiratus, clam suos agit, ut, statuto termino, comes, cum suo exercitu ante castrum veniens, ipsum cum omni suppellectili sua ad se transfugientem suscipiat. Timebat enim, ne si in propatulo fieret, quod castrum reddere vel ad fidem catholicam transire niteretur, a suismet perimeretur.

Moreover, he, recognizing, from an experiment taken from others, that whatever the count aimed at, with Fortune favoring, he strove at nothing in vain, somewhat also inspired beneath his silent breast about conversion to the faith, secretly works upon his own people, that, with a fixed term appointed, the count, coming with his army before the castle, might receive him, deserting over to him with all his chattels. For he feared lest, if it were done in the open, in that he was endeavoring to surrender the castle or to pass over to the Catholic faith, he would be slain by his very own.

Comes tali promissione laetus, apud Agrigentum redit: statuto termino, silenter exercitu conflato, haud procul a Castro-Iohannis, loco inter se praenotato, insidiis occultatur. Chamut, omnibus suis mulibus et equibus superpositis, quasi aliquorsum processurus, urbe digreditur, ex industria super insidias nostrorum incidit, a nostris excipitur.

The Count, gladdened by such a promise, returns to Agrigentum: the term having been set, with the army silently assembled, not far from Castrum-Iohannis, at a place pre-noted between them, he is hidden in ambush. Chamut, with all his mules and horses loaded up, as if about to proceed somewhere, leaves the city, deliberately falls upon the ambush of our men, and is intercepted by our men.

Comperto, Castrum-Iohannis a nostris oppugnatur. Porro cives, tali facto viribus exhausti, terrentur: pro re atque tempore consilium captant. Foedere composito, comiti reconciliantur, castrum deditioni adiicitur.

Once this was discovered, Castrum-Iohannis is attacked by our men. Moreover, the citizens, exhausted in strength by such a deed, are terrified: they take counsel according to the matter and the moment. With a treaty composed, they are reconciled to the count, the fortress is surrendered.

Comes, castrum adeptus, laetus efficitur; nostrae genti ad tuendum fortiores turres consignantur.

The count, having obtained the castle, becomes joyful; the stronger towers are consigned to our people for defense.

Chamut, cum uxore et liberis, christianus efficitur, hoc solo conventioni interposito, quod uxor sua, quae sibi quadam consanguinitatis linea coniungebatur, in posterum sibi non interdicetur. Chamut autem, inter suos ulterius commorari vel differens vel diffidens, ne comiti, quasi aliquam fallaciam miscens, suspectus fieret, vel minus crederetur, apud Calabriam, in provincia Melitana a comite terram suis usibus sufficientem expetit. Quod comes sibi libenter annuens, illuc secessit.

Chamut, with his wife and children, becomes a Christian, with this sole stipulation interposed in the compact: that his wife, who was joined to him by a certain line of consanguinity, should not henceforth be interdicted to him. But Chamut, to remain longer among his own people either delaying or distrusting, lest he should become suspect to the count, as if mixing in some fallacy, or be less believed, asks from the count, at Calabria, in the Melitan province, land sufficient for his uses. The count assenting to him gladly, he withdrew thither.

Sicque postea, longo tempore vivens, ab omni fraude versus nostram gentem sese irreprehensibilem deinceps exhibuit.

And so afterwards, living for a long time, he henceforth displayed himself irreprehensible from all fraud toward our people.

VII. Comes, videns ob propitiationem Dei totam Siciliam. excepta Butera et Noto, suae ditioni subeundo cessisse, ne ingratus tanti beneficii sibi a Deo collati existeret, coepit Deo devotus existere: iusta iudicia amare, iustitiam exequi, veritatem amplecti, ecclesias frequentare cum devotione, sacris hymnis adstare, decimationes omnium redditum suorum sacris ecclesiis attribuere, viduarum et orphanorum, sed et moerentium cum ratione consolator.

7. The Count, seeing that on account of the propitiation of God the whole of Sicily. with Butera and Noto excepted, had yielded, by submitting, to come under his dominion, lest he should prove ungrateful for so great a benefit conferred upon him by God, began to be devout toward God: to love just judgments, to execute justice, to embrace truth, to frequent the churches with devotion, to stand by the sacred hymns, to attribute the decimations of all his revenues to the holy churches, a consoler of widows and orphans, and also of those who mourn, with due reason.

Ecclesias passim per universam Siciliam fieri imperat; ipse pluribus in locis de suo sumptus, quibus facilius fiant, attribuit.

He orders churches to be made everywhere throughout all Sicily; he himself, in several places, assigns expenses from his own resources, in order that they may be made more easily.

In urbe Agrigentina pontificalibus infulis cathedram sublimat: terris, decimis et diversis copiis, quae pontifici et clero competenter designata sufficiant, haereditaliter chirographis suis dotat, ornamentis et sacri altaris utensilibus ed plenum consignatis. Huic ecclesiae Gerlandum quendam, natione Allobrogum, virum, ut aiunt, magnae charitatis et ecclesiasticis disciplinis eruditum, episcopum ordinans, praefecit.

In the city of Agrigentum he elevates the cathedra with pontifical infulae: with lands, tithes, and diverse resources, which, appropriately designated for the pontiff and clergy, may suffice, he endows it hereditarily by his own chirographs, with the ornaments and the utensils of the sacred altar fully assigned. Over this church, appointing as bishop a certain Gerland, of the nation of the Allobroges, a man, as they say, of great charity and trained in ecclesiastical disciplines, he set him in charge.

Haud secus apud Mazariam facere addens, omnibus quae rite sufficienter praelato et clericis ad plenum designatis, Stephanum, quendam Rothomagensem, honestae vitae virum, episcopum ordinavit.

Not otherwise, adding that he would do the same at Mazaria, with all the things which, duly and sufficiently, had been designated in full to the prelate and to the clerics, he ordained Stephen, a certain man of Rouen, a man of honorable life, as bishop.

Apud Syracusam vero idem adiicens Rogerium, decanum ecclesiae Traynensis, honestae eruditionis clericum et boni moris et affabilitatis virum, in Provincia ortum, pontificalibus infulis sublimavit. Traynensibus non minimum de eius amissione dolentibus, quippe cuius doctrina et exemplo ad meliora semper hortabantur, et consilio et eloquentia etiam in ipsis saecularibus negotiis, quasi pro baculo sustentationis, utebantur: nam et, absente episcopo, vices sibi delegatas cum omni prudentia et moderatione exequebatur.

At Syracuse, indeed, adding likewise, he exalted Roger, the dean of the church of Traina, a cleric of honorable erudition and a man of good morals and affability, born in Provence, with the pontifical infulae. The people of Traina grieved not a little at his loss, since by his teaching and example they were always encouraged to better things, and they made use of his counsel and eloquence even in secular affairs themselves, as if for a staff of support: for also, when the bishop was absent, he executed the functions delegated to him with all prudence and moderation.

Apud Sanctam Euphemiam vero, monachum quendam, natione Britonem, virum religiosum, post abbatem totam ecclesiam prudenti moderamine audiens, ut hunc ecclesiae Cathaniae—si impetrare queat—episcopum ordinet, intendit. Quare et per semetipsum illuc accedens, vix tandem, monachis hoc carere volentibus—ipso etiam prae caeteris amplius reluctante—obtinuit. Sicque solemniter episcopatum concedens, quod nulli episcoporum fecisse cognoscitur, totam urbem sedi suae cum omnibus appendicis suis sub chirographo et testibus haereditaliter possidendam assignavit.

At Saint Euphemia, indeed, hearing a certain monk, by nation a Breton, a religious man, second after the abbot, the whole church with prudent moderation, he intended to ordain this man bishop of the church of Catania—if he might be able to obtain it. Wherefore, going there in his own person as well, he at length scarcely obtained it, the monks being willing to be without this—he himself also, more than the rest, resisting further. And thus, granting the episcopate solemnly, a thing which he is known to have done to none of the bishops, he assigned the whole city to his see, with all its appendices, under a chirograph and witnesses, to be possessed hereditarily.

Porro ille ecclesiam minus cultam, utpote a faucibus incredulae gentis erutam suscipiens, Marthae iuris studiis primo studiosius inhaerens, brevi, ecclesiam omnibus necessariis provehens, ad Mariae vices cum Martha exequendas transiit: monachorum turbam non modicam sibi coadunans, districtae regulae iugo, verbo et exemplo subesse, ut fidelis pastor coÎgit.

Moreover, he, taking up the church less cultivated—inasmuch as it had been rescued from the jaws of an incredulous nation—at first, more studiously adhering to the pursuits proper to Martha’s office, soon, promoting the church with all necessities, passed over to carry out Mary’s roles together with Martha: gathering to himself no small crowd of monks, he, as a faithful pastor, compelled them, by word and example, to be subject to the yoke of a strict rule.

VIII. Ea tempestate Philippus, rex Francorum, uxorem habens legitimam et praeclari generis, Bertam nomine, ex qua susceperat filium, nomine Ludovicum, cui etiam ab ipsis incunabulis regnum post se habere designaverat, contra ius legitimae coniunctionis exosam habere coepit: et a se contra Canones, libellum repudii conando, repellere, nihil criminis obiecto, execepto quod consanguinitatem falso adnumerare tentabat, nec poterat. Hic legatos suos, apud Siciliam, ad comitem dirigens, filiam eius, nomine Emmam, qluam de prima uxore Iudicta habebat, admodum speciosam puellam, sibi in matrimonium copulandam expetit.

8. At that time Philip, king of the Franks, having a legitimate wife and of very illustrious lineage, by name Bertha, from whom he had received a son, by name Louis, to whom also from the very cradle he had designated to have the kingdom after him, began to hold her, against the law of legitimate conjunction, in aversion: and, against the Canons, attempting a bill of repudiation, to drive her away from himself, alleging no crime, except that he was trying falsely to reckon consanguinity, and he could not. He, sending his legates into Sicily to the count, asks that his daughter, by name Emma, whom he had by his first wife Judith, a very beautiful maiden, be coupled to himself in matrimony.

Comes vero, fraudis, quam adversus legitimam uxorem agebat, ignarus, cum multis sponsalibus se sibi daturum concessit; statutoque termino, navibus apparatis, eam usque ad Sanctum Egidium cum pluribus thesaurorum exeniis, quo rex se obvium fieri dixerat, maritimo cursu transmittit. Habebat etiam fiduciam in comite eiusdem Provinciae, Raymundo, quod eam regi honeste consignaret: nam et ipse aliam filiam comitis iamdudum duxerat in uxorem.

But the Count, indeed, unaware of the fraud which he was practicing against his lawful wife, consented, with many betrothal-pledges, that he would give her to him; and, the date having been set and the ships prepared, he sends her by a maritime course as far as Saint Giles, with several treasure-gifts, to the place where the king had said he would come to meet her. He also had confidence in Raymond, Count of the same Province, that he would consign her to the king honorably; for he too had long since taken as wife another daughter of the Count.

Rex vero, pravorum consilio usus, ad haec nitebatur, ut, thesauris susceptis, comitem de filia non ducendo ludificaret. Porro comes Raymundus, regis fraude comperta, coepit et ipse nihilominus aliam fraudem coniecturare, videlicet ut, puellam dissimulata fraude cum honore suscipiens, alteri probo viro in matrimonium consignaret, ipse vero omnem pecuniam usurparet. Sed prudentes viri, quos comes cum filia miserat, prece pullae pecunia exportata, fraudem quae agebatur comperientes, anchoris extractis, vela ventis committentes, puella cum sororis marito relicta, placida aura sufflante, cum pretiosioribus thesauris ad comitem in Siciliam revertuntur.

The king, however, employing the counsel of the depraved, strove after this: that, once the treasures were received, he would make a mock of the count by not taking his daughter in marriage. Furthermore Count Raymond, the king’s fraud having been discovered, began likewise nevertheless to conjecture another fraud, namely that, receiving the girl with honor while the fraud was dissembled, he would consign her in matrimony to another upright man, while he himself would usurp all the money. But the prudent men whom the count had sent with his daughter, at the girl’s entreaty, the money carried off, discovering the fraud that was being acted, with the anchors weighed, committing the sails to the winds, the girl left with her sister’s husband, a gentle breeze blowing, returned with the more precious treasures to the count in Sicily.

Comes vero Raymundus, fraude, quam machinabatur, ex parte frustatus, puellam comiti Claromontis legalibus nuptiis copulavit. Sicque sola Dei dispositione solemniter maritata, et pater opprobrio, quod rex machinabatur, et filia inordinata et contra ius, quamvis regali, copulatione liberatur.

Count Raymond, however, his fraud which he was machinating partly frustrated, joined the girl to the Count of Clermont in lawful nuptials. And thus, by the disposition of God alone solemnly married, both the father is freed from the opprobrium which the king was machinating, and the daughter from an inordinate and against-law, though royal, coupling.

IX. Mihera vero, fÏlius Hugonis Falloc, vir magnae levitatis, sed elegantissimus miles, laeva pro dextera utens, Roberto duce defuncto, in insolentiam prorumpens, vicinos circumquaque se praedis et diversis incursionibus lacessendo appetere coepit. Possidebat enim tunc temporis castra sibi a patre haereditaliter relicta, Catanzarium et Roccam: plus vero armis ambiens, etiam in ipso duce praesumens, castrum, quod Maia dicitur, traditione civium sibi usurpans, irrumpit. Sed suis viribus auxilia addere volens, Boamundi, fratris ducis, qui iam, foedere rupto, adversus fratrem conspiraverat, homo efficitur.

9. Mihera, indeed, the son of Hugh Falloc, a man of great levity, but a most elegant knight, using the left in place of the right hand, after Duke Robert had died, bursting into insolence, began to assail his neighbors on every side, provoking them by predations and diverse incursions. For at that time he possessed the strongholds left to him by his father hereditarily, Catanzaro and Rocca; but, aiming at more by arms, even presuming upon the duke himself, he breaks in, usurping for himself, by the surrender of the citizens, the castle which is called Maia. But wishing to add auxiliaries to his own forces, he becomes the man (vassal) of Bohemond, the duke’s brother, who already, the pact broken, had conspired against his brother.

Maiam, quam pervaserat, et omnem terram, quam haereditaliter a patre sibi relictam sub duce possidebat, ipso duce renunciato, et sacramentis confoederatus Boamundo, ab ipso recipit.

Maia, which he had seized, and all the land which he possessed under the duke, left to him hereditarily by his father, the duke himself having been renounced, and confederated with Boamund by oaths, he receives from that same man.

X. At Boamundus, ambitione nanciscendarum—pervasione super fratem—urbium avidus, cum Cusentinis secreto de traditione urbis agit, promittens se castellum, quod dux, illis invisum, in eadem urbe firmaverat, si eorum auxilio capere possit, funditus dirutum iri. Qua promissione illi, ad fraudem proclive illecti, Boamundo assentientes, illum infra urbem cum sua virtute suscipiunt: sacramentis sibi confoederantur. Castellum vallantes, oppugnatum vadunt.

10. But Boamund, avid with the ambition of acquiring cities—by encroachment upon his brother—secretly negotiates with the Cusentines about the handover of the city, promising that the castle which the duke, hateful to them, had made firm in that same city, if he could take it by their aid, would be razed from the foundations. By this promise they, prone to fraud, allured, assenting to Boamund, admit him within the city with his force: they are confederated to him by oaths. Investing the castle, they go to the assault.

Quod cum duci in Apuliam, ubi tunc morabatur, nunciatum fuisset, exercitum admovens, illorsum accelerat; avunculumque sibi in auxilium invitans, ut sibi apud Cusentium obvius fieri non differat, mandat. Nam, ut diximus, contra omnes sibi adversantes, illo quasi pro flagello, ad terrendum alios, utebatur.

When this had been announced to the duke in Apulia, where he was then staying, bringing up the army he hastens thither; and, inviting his uncle to his aid, he orders that he not defer to meet him at Cusentium. For, as we have said, against all who opposed him he used him, as it were, as a scourge, to terrify others.

Comes vero, militaribus et peditum copiis apparatis, invitanti se nepoti obvius fieri accelerat. Sed, antequam ab utroque exercitu, ducis videlicet sive comitis, illuc perventum est, castrum, quod oppugnabatur, dum pro posse repugnat, machinamentis appositis, viribus exhaustum, hostibus cessit: funditusque, ut a Boamundo promissum erat, dirutum fit. Porro dux, comitem sibi obvium habens, Rossanam, quae Cusentinis in fraude assentiebat, oppugnans capit, incendio omnia percurrens.

The count indeed, with military and infantry forces prepared, hastens to meet his nephew who was inviting him. But, before either army, namely the duke’s or the count’s, arrived there, the fortress, which was being assaulted, while it resisted as far as it could, with siege‑machines set to it, drained of strength, yielded to the enemies: and, to the very foundations, as had been promised by Bohemond, it was razed. Furthermore the duke, having the count meet him, takes Rossano, which was assenting to the Cusentines in treachery, attacking it and scouring all things with fire.

Boamundus itaque—ne obsidione infra urbem clauderetur—devitans, Hugonem Claromontis, qui Cusentinos in sua fidelitate retineat, apud Cusentium relinquens, Roccam secessit. Dux vero et comes, putantes eum apud Maiam digressum, illuc praeoccupare volentes, accedunt. Sed cum non ibi esse comperiunt, versus Roccam properantes, loco, qui iucus Calupnii dicitur, tentoria figunt, ubi per internuncios, pace quindecim dierum ab utrisque partibus interposita, apud Sanctam Euphemiam conveniendi et plenius reconciliandi terminum statuunt.

Bohemond therefore—avoiding lest he be shut in by a siege within the city—leaving Hugh of Clermont at Cosenza, to keep the Cosentines in his fealty, withdrew to Rocca. But the duke and the count, thinking he had gone to Maia and wishing to preoccupy that place, approach thither. Yet when they discover he is not there, hastening toward Rocca, they pitch their tents at the place which is called the Grove of Calupnius, where, through go-betweens, with a truce of fifteen days interposed on both sides, they set a date to meet at Saint Euphemia and to be more fully reconciled.

Sed Mihera huic termino assensit; non autem Boamundus. Ipse enim, reconciliari differens, iam Tarentum recesserat. Instante itaque die praefixo, Mihera conductum, quo secure accedere vel recedere liceat, expetit.

But Mihera assented to this term; Boamundus, however, did not. For he, deferring to be reconciled, had already withdrawn to Tarentum. Therefore, with the prefixed day pressing, Mihera requests a safe-conduct, by which it may be permitted to approach or to withdraw securely.

Conceditur. Accedit; Boamundo inconsulto, duci reconciliatur. Maia reddita, duci, cui iure competebat, reconsignatur.

It is conceded. He approaches; with Boamund not consulted, he is reconciled to the duke. Maia, having been returned, is reconsigned to the duke, to whom it rightfully pertained.

Fratres itaque, post biennii dissentionem, consilio utrorumque fidelium reconciliantur. A duce, ut semper viro largissimo, Boamundo Cusentium et Maia conceditur. Sed brevissimo intervallo, quia Boamundus Cusentinis iuraverat castrum ibi se non facturum, et dux idem Barensibus; cambio inter se facto, dux Cusentium recipit, Barum fratri mutua vicissitudine concedit, ut, foedere salvo, quisque in suo iure libera potestate quod volet faciendi utatur.

Therefore the brothers, after a biennium of dissension, are reconciled by the counsel of the faithful of both sides. By the duke—ever a most bountiful man—Cusentium and Maia are granted to Boamund. But after a very brief interval, because Boamund had sworn to the Cusentines that he would not make a castle there, and the duke likewise to the Barensians; an exchange having been made between them, the duke takes back Cusentium, and grants Bari to his brother by mutual exchange, so that, with the pact preserved, each may, in his own right, make use of free power to do what he wills.

Sicque amicitiam suam testibus et chirographo confirmantes, deinceps indivulsam tenuerunt.

And thus, confirming their friendship with witnesses and a chirograph, thereafter they held it indissoluble.

XI. Mihera ergo, comiti Rogerio et Rodulpho Loretelli sibi infestantibus, diu rebellis, videns offensas suas modum reconciliationis excessisse, ulterius ferre non valens, Adae, filio suo, omnem terram suam assignat, putans eum, auxilio ex parte matris parentum, facilius resitere hostibus, aut certe reconciliari. Ipse vero Beneventum secedens, monachice tonsoratus, habitum induit.

11. Therefore Mihera, with Count Roger and Rodulf of Loretello making themselves hostile to him, long rebellious, seeing that his offenses had exceeded the measure of reconciliation, and being unable to bear it further, assigns all his land to Adam, his son, thinking that he, with the help of kin on his mother’s side, would more easily resist the enemies, or at least be reconciled. But he himself, withdrawing to Benevento, tonsured in monastic fashion, put on the habit.

Nam neque dux, neque Boamundus, quia vicissim, utrumque foedere rupto, ludificaverat, amici erant: ob quam rem comes et Robertus Loretelli, iam a duce terram eius sibi datam iri expetentes, facilius obtinuerant. Comes vero milites suos, Rodulpho Loretelli ductore, super Adam mittens, diutinis incursionibus aliquanto tempore repugnantem, tandem penuria afficit. Qui, cum videt se ulterius ferre nequire palatium suum et omnes meliores domos nocte, ubi oppugnabatur, incendio destruens, castro relicto, recessit anno Verbi incarnati MLXXXVIII.

For neither the duke nor Boamundus were on friendly terms, because, in turn, he had made sport of each, the pact having been broken; for which reason the count and Robert of Loretello, now seeking that his land would be given to themselves by the duke, had more easily secured it. But the count, sending his soldiers, with Rodulf of Loretello as leader, against Adam—who for some time was resisting by long incursions—at length afflicts him with penury. He, when he sees that he cannot bear it further, by night, when he was being besieged, destroying his palace and all the better houses by fire, with the castle left behind, withdrew in the year of the Word’s Incarnation 1088.

Comes vero et Rodulphus Loretelli, terram eius—a duce ut concessa erat—inter se dividentes, deinceps utpote sua sorte sunt.

But the count and Rodulf of Loretello, dividing his land—as it had been granted by the duke—between themselves, thereafter held it as their own allotment.

XII. Igitur comes Rogerius, omni Sicilia adversum se—foedere composito—sedata, excepto quod Notenses, quo uxor Benarvet cum filio transfugerat, et Buterenses adhuc pro posse incassum recalcitrabant, exercitu admoto, Buterum obsessum vadit, anno Dominicae incarnationis MLXXXVIII, inchoante aprili. Prudenterque armata manu, hosuliter undique vallans, aliquanto tempore inclusos diversis calamitatibus afflixit.

12. Therefore Count Roger, with all Sicily that was against him—once a treaty had been composed—settled, except that the Notans, to which Benarvet’s wife had fled with her son, and the Buterans were still, as far as they could, recalcitrating in vain, with the army brought up, goes to besiege Butera, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1088, as April was beginning. And prudently, with an armed force, in hostile fashion hemming them in on every side, he afflicted those shut in for some time with diverse calamities.

XIII. Sed dum, machinamentis ad castrum affligendum apparatis, attentius insudaret, legatus papae Urbani, cum literis ab ipso sigillatis adveniens, nunciat eundem apostolicum virum Siciliam intrasse, eique, ut apud Traynam sibi locutum occurrat, mandare, eum, longo itinere fatigatum—a Terracina enim digrediens, adveniebat—prae lassitudine corporis et montuosis saltibus adhuc interpositi itineris progredi nolle. Comes vero, quid potissimum ageret sollicitus—nam sedem belli deserere damnosum ducebat—papae vero, qui a tanto intervallo locorum ad se veniebat, non occurrere, modico itineris interposito, indignum, ut catholicus vir, aestimabat.

13. But while, the engines for afflicting the castle having been prepared, he was sweating attentively, the legate of Pope Urban, arriving with letters sealed by him, announces that the same apostolic man has entered Sicily, and bids him to meet him at Traina to speak with him, stating that he, wearied by a long journey—for, departing from Terracina, he was arriving—on account of bodily weariness and the mountainous passes of the route still interposed, was unwilling to proceed. But the count, anxious what he should do rather— for he judged it damaging to desert the seat of war—yet to not go to meet the pope, who from so great an interval of places was coming to him, with a modest stretch of journey interposed, he deemed unworthy, as a catholic man.

Tandem consilio—vir prudens—accepto, agit ut neque sedem belli deserat, neque apostolico non occurrendo inobediens existat. Exercitu nempe fidelibus suis—prudentibus viris et talibus negotiis peritis—delegato, hostes infestare instruit; ipse, cum paucis, se invitanti apostolico obvius apud Traynam occurrit, laetique ad invicem, alter ab altero cum summa veneratione excipitur. Hic ab illo apostolica benedictione sub vice Mariae, illo ab isto in his, quae corpori necessaria erant, obsequiis Marthae, in crastinumque summo diluculo convenientes, agunt ad invicem de negotio, quod apostolicum accessisse compulerat.

At length, with a plan—prudent man that he was—adopted, he contrives that he neither abandon the seat of war nor, by not meeting the apostolic man, be found disobedient. The army, namely, having been delegated to his faithful men—prudent men and experienced in such affairs—he instructs them to infest the enemies; he himself, with a few, meets the apostolic, who had invited him, at Trayna, and, rejoicing mutually, each is received by the other with the highest veneration. This one from that one with apostolic benediction in the stead of Mary, that one from this one with the services of Martha in those things which were necessary for the body; and meeting on the morrow at the very dawn, they confer with each other concerning the business which had compelled the apostolic man to come.

Nam idem apostolicus ante paucos menses Alexium, imperatorem Constantinopolitanum, per Nicolaum, abbatem Criptae-ferratae, et Rogerium diaconum conveniens paterna increpatione submonuerat, quod christianis latinis, qui in sua provincia morabantur, azymo immolari interdixerat, praecipiens in sacrificiis, more Graecorum, fermentato uti, quod nostra religio omnino non habet. Imperator vero, increpationem eius humiliter suscipiens, invitat eum per eosdem legatos chartulis, aureis literis scriptis, ut, veniens cum eruditis catholice viris latinis Constantinopolim, concilio congregato, disputatio fieret inter Graecos et Latinos, ut communi definitione in ecclesia Dei illud schisma scinderetur, quod Graeci fermentato, Latini vero azymo immolabant, unaque ecclesia Dei unum morem teneret, dicens se libenter catholicae discussioni assentire, et quod authenticis sententiis, praesentibus Graecis et Latinis, assentiri definiretur, sive azymo, sive fermentato immolandum esset, se deinceps observare velle. Terminum etiam, quo papa accedere deberet, statuit: anni videlicet et dimidii.

For the same apostolic, a few months before, approaching Alexius, the Constantinopolitan emperor, through Nicholas, abbot of Crypta-Ferrata, and Roger the deacon, had admonished with a paternal rebuke, because he had interdicted Latin Christians who were dwelling in his province to immolate with unleavened bread (azyme), prescribing in sacrifices, after the manner of the Greeks, to use leavened bread, which our religion in no way has. The emperor, however, humbly receiving his rebuke, invites him through those same legates by charters written in golden letters, that, coming with learned Catholic Latin men to Constantinople, a council being convened, a disputation might be held between Greeks and Latins, so that by a common definition in the Church of God that schism might be cut asunder, wherein the Greeks immolated with leavened, but the Latins with unleavened, and that the one Church of God should hold one custom; saying that he would gladly assent to a catholic discussion, and that to what by authentic sentences (decisions), with Greeks and Latins present, it should be defined was to be assented—whether it ought to be immolated with unleavened or with leavened—he wished henceforth to observe. He also fixed the term by which the pope ought to come: namely, of a year and a half.

Comes vero, ut tantum schisma ab ecclesia Dei amputaretur, eundi consilium dedit. Sed impedientibus inimicis sanctae Dei Ecclesiae, qui Romae sibi infesti persistebant, iter prohibitum est.

The Count, however, in order that so great a schism might be amputated from the Church of God, gave counsel to go. But, with the enemies of the holy Church of God impeding, who at Rome persisted hostile to him, the journey was prevented.

Comes itaque papam, pluribus donariis honoratum, a se dimisit. Ipse vero Buterum rediens, hostibus infestus, tandem ad deditionem coegit. Sicque castro potitus, pro libitu suo disponit, potentioresque in Calabriam mansuros mittit, ne sibi, ibidem manentes, aliquam fraudem machinantes, commotionem facerent.

The Count therefore dismissed the pope from his presence, honored with several donatives. He himself, returning to Buterum, being hostile to the enemies, at length forced them to surrender. And thus, having gotten possession of the castle, he arranges it at his pleasure, and sends the more powerful men to Calabria to remain, lest, remaining there and machinating some fraud against him, they should make a commotion.

XIV. Anno igitur incarnati Salvatoris MLXXXIX comes Rogerius, uxore Eremburga, filia Guillelmi, comitis Mortonensis, defuncta, aliam duxit: Adelaydem nomine, neptem Bonifacii, famosissimi Italorum marchionis—filiam videlicet fratris eius—iuvenculam honestae admodum faciei; duasque sorores eiusdem puellae duobus filiis suis, Gaufredo videlicet, et Iordano, in matrimonium copulavit. Sed Gaufredus, antequam nubiles annos attigisset,—quod dolor est dicere!—morbo prohibente, minime eam cognovit.

14. Therefore, in the year of the incarnate Savior 1089 Count Roger, his wife Eremburga, daughter of William, count of Mortain, having died, took another: Adelaide by name, the niece of Boniface, the most famous marquis of the Italians—the daughter, namely, of his brother—a young maiden of very becoming countenance; and he joined in marriage two sisters of that same girl to his two sons, namely Geoffrey and Jordan. But Geoffrey, before he had reached marriageable years—which is painful to say!—with sickness preventing, by no means knew her.

Iordanus autem solemnibus nuptiis duxit.

Jordan, however, led her in solemn nuptials.

XV. Porro Notenses, videntes omnem Siciliam sub comite curvatam, seseque ulterius incassum resistere, scientes frustra niti ad extremum, nil, nisi odium fatigando quaerere, extremae dementiae esse, consilio inter se habito, comiti reconciliari utile ducunt. Denique de se ipsis legatos eligentes, ad comitem dirigunt, qui apud Melitum, ubi tunc comes morabatur, accedentes, pacem faciunt; anno Dominicae incarnationis MXC, februario mense.

15. Moreover the Notans, seeing all Sicily bowed beneath the count, and that for themselves to resist further in vain, knowing that to strive to the end fruitlessly, to seek nothing except hatred by wearing him out, is of extreme dementia, with counsel held among themselves, deem it useful to be reconciled to the count. Finally, choosing envoys from among themselves, they dispatch them to the count; and approaching him at Melite, where the count was then staying, they make peace; in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1090, in the month of February.

Comes itaque censum duorum annorum illis condonans, Iordanum, filium suum, cui etiam terram et uxorem dederat, ut urbem, ipsis dedentibus, recipiat, cum ipsis mittit: qui, a patre edoctus, urbe suscepta, castello munit, proque libitu suo in patris fidelitate disponit. Uxor autem Benarvet cum filio in Africam transfugit.

Therefore the Count, remitting to them the census-tribute of two years, sends Jordan, his son—whom he had also endowed with land and a wife—along with them, so that, upon their surrender, he may receive the city; who, instructed by his father, once the city was received, fortifies it with a castle, and at his own pleasure arranges it under fealty to his father. But Benarvet’s wife, with her son, fled over into Africa.

Sedata itaque omni Sicilia, comes Rogerius, collati sibi a Deo beneficii non ingratus existens, omnimode, secundum quod mundiales curae, quibus occupabatur, permittebant, Deo coepit sese devotum existere; et quanto ampliori honore terreno se a Deo provectum cognoscebat, tanto ampliori studio agebat, ut in perfectae humilitatis statu persistens, gressum mentis figat. Militibus itaque suis, quorum auxilio tanti honoris culmen adeptus fuerat, gratias cum omni mansuetudine referens, quibusdam terris et largis possessionibus, quibusdam vero aliis diversis praemis, laboris sui sudores recompensat.

Accordingly, with all Sicily pacified, Count Roger, not ungrateful for the benefit conferred upon him by God, began in every way, so far as the worldly cares with which he was occupied permitted, to show himself devoted to God; and the more he recognized himself advanced by God with ampler earthly honor, by so much the more earnestly he strove, that, persisting in a state of perfect humility, he might fix the step of his mind. Therefore to his soldiers, by whose aid he had attained the summit of so great an honor, returning thanks with all mansuetude, he recompenses the sweats of their labor: to some with lands and ample possessions, and to others indeed with various other rewards.

XVI. Sic itaque omni Sicilia pro libitu suo sapienter composita, comes, militaribus exercitationibus assuetus, quietis impatiens, laboris appetens, lucris inhians, corpus ab assuetis exercitiis minime desuescere passus est; sed quae transmarina regna prima potissimum sibi subiuganda attento animo iugi meditatione tractat. Unde et Melitam insulam a referentibus viciniorem caeteris sibi cognoscens, classem, qua eam attentet, accelerare imperat; militibus suis, ut se ad id exercitii appetent, praecipiendo denuntiat.

16. Thus therefore, with all Sicily wisely composed according to his own good pleasure, the count, accustomed to military exercises, impatient of rest, eager for toil, hankering after lucre, did not allow his body at all to grow unaccustomed from its wonted exercises; but with attentive mind in continual meditation he considers which overseas realms first and especially are to be subjugated by himself. Whence also, learning from informants that the island of Melita was nearer than the others to him, he orders a fleet to be hastened, with which he may attempt it; and by giving commands he gives notice to his soldiers, that they should make themselves eager for that enterprise.

Dum ista geruntur, Mainerius de Gerentia a comite, ut sibi locutum veniat, invitatus, accedere differt, cum arrogatione, praesente adhuc legato comitis, respondens, se numquam ipsum, nisi ut damnum, si possit, inferat, visum velle. Quod—referente legato, qui missus fuerat—comes audiens, plurimum indignatus, festinus mari transmeato, a Sicilia in Calabriam venit: Petrum Mortonensem, cui vices suas plurimum commiserat exequendas, ut per Siciliam exercitum commovens post se acceleret, mittit. Qui prudenter iniuncta perficiens, infra octo dies ab omni Sicilia copioso exercitu congregato, mense maii ad comitem adduxit.

While these things are being done, Mainerius of Gerentia, invited by the count to come to speak with him, defers to approach, answering with arrogance—while the count’s legate was still present—that he never wished to see him, except to inflict harm, if he could. Which—when the legate who had been sent reported it—the count, hearing, was very indignant, and in haste, the sea having been crossed, came from Sicily into Calabria. He sends Peter of Mortone, to whom he had very greatly entrusted his functions to be executed, that, stirring up the army through Sicily, he should hurry after him. He, prudently accomplishing what was enjoined, within eight days, with a copious army gathered from all Sicily, in the month of May led it to the count.

Sicque comes versus Gerentiam accelerans, castrum terribili obsidione vallavit.

And thus the count, hastening toward Gerentia, invested the stronghold with a terrible siege.

Qua de re Mainerius territus, se stulte et fecisse et locutum fuisse cognoscens, supplex ad misericordiam comitis venit: equos, mulos, thesauros et omnia, quae habebat, veniam petens, in eius dispositione ponit. Comes super iis, quae fecerat, eum poenitere videns, ut semper pii cordis, omnia condonavit, excepto quod—quasi pro disciplina potiusquam ambitione—mille aureos solidos de suo accepit, ut eum a tali praesumptione ulterius coÎrceat.

On account of which matter, Mainerius, terrified, recognizing that he had both acted and spoken foolishly, came as a suppliant to the mercy of the count: seeking pardon, he placed his horses, mules, treasures, and all that he had at his disposal. The count, seeing that he repented concerning the things he had done, being ever of a pious heart, forgave all, except that—rather as a discipline than from ambition—he took one thousand gold solidi from his goods, in order to restrain him further from such presumption.

Sicque per ardua adiacentium montium inde digrediens, Cusentium venit. Et, quia incolae provinciae illius duci recalcitrabant, triduo vineta et oliveta eorum extirpans, inde Aratam secessit, ubi cum suis consilium captans, exercitum brevi tempore solvit, praecipiens ut unusquisque se ad expeditionem versus Melitam domi aptatum recedat, termino tantum quindecim dierum interposito, quo sibi apud Resacrambam—illuc enim classem suam convenire fecerat—obvii fiant. Portus autem iam dictus natura a caeteris differt, ita ut, si quis experientiae causa cannam vel aliquid concavum cubito uno accipiens a ripa in mari terrae tenus palmo tantummodo profunditatis figat, tantae longitudinis, ut desuper undas concava summitas, quantum volet, attingat, tum mare salsissimum sit, dulcissimas et potabiles aquas per concavitatem in altum ebullire videas.

And so, departing thence through the arduous steeps of the adjacent mountains, he came to Cusentium. And, because the inhabitants of that province were recalcitrant to the leader, in three days, uprooting their vineyards and olive-groves, he withdrew from there to Arata, where, taking counsel with his men, he disbanded the army for a short time, instructing that each one retire home equipped for the expedition toward Melite (Malta), with only a term of fifteen days interposed, at which they should meet him at Resacramba—for there he had caused his fleet to assemble. Now the already-named port differs in its nature from the rest, such that, if anyone, for the sake of experiment, taking a reed or something hollow of one cubit, from the bank in the sea drives it down to the ground to only a palm’s depth, of such a length that the hollow tip from above, as much as he pleases, may touch the waves, then, although the sea is most salty, you see the sweetest and drinkable waters bubbling upward to the surface through the concavity.

Hic die terminato, ab omni Sicilia et Calabria plurimo exercitu iulio mense conflato, quodam vespere comes naves ingredi accelerat.

With the day ended, from all Sicily and Calabria, a very great army having been assembled in the month of July, on a certain evening the count hastens to enter the ships.

Porro Iiordanus, filius comitis, dum classis aptatur, semper suspicans erat, comitem quidem versus Melitam non iturum, sed sibi, ut ipse exercitum illorsum conduceret, commissurum. Comes autem in ipso ingressu navium arcessito imperat ut cum designatis, quos sibi placuerit, Siciliam procuratum remaneat; urbem nullam vel castrum ingredi, donec ipse a Melita revertatur, praesumat; sed in tentoriis habitans, ubicumque per Siciliam ad succurrendum, si necesse sit, paratus, eius ingressum sustineat. Porro ille aliter quam ratus erat, patrem praecipientem audiens, totus admiratione attonitus fit, patremque ab iis, quae dicebat, dehortari nisus, cum lacrimis proclamat dignum potius—si patri placeat—esse se iuvenem tanto labori ascribi, patrem iam, quasi emeriti stipendii virum, a laboribus plurimum passum corpus recreando, quietis oblectamentis uti: minus damnosum si ipse, minoris pretii iuvenis, in tanto discrimine pereat, quam vir tantae auctoritatis tantive consilii.

Moreover Jordan, the count’s son, while the fleet was being made apt, kept suspecting that the count would not go toward Malta, but would entrust it to him, that he himself should conduct the army thither. But the Count, with him summoned at the very embarkation of the ships, orders that he remain to administer Sicily with such designees as it may please him to have; that he presume to enter no city or castle until he himself returns from Malta; but, dwelling in tents, wherever throughout Sicily, ready to succor, if need be, he should await his entry. He, however, otherwise than he had supposed, hearing his father giving orders, becomes wholly astonished with admiration, and, trying to dissuade his father from the things he was saying, with tears cries out that it is more fitting—if it please his father—that he, a young man, be assigned to so great a labor, and that his father now, as a man of “emerited stipend,” having suffered very many labors, should, by refreshing his body, enjoy the delights of rest: it would be less damaging if he himself, a young man of lesser price, should perish in so great a peril, than a man of such authority and of such counsel.

Comes vero ad verba filii indignatus, eum, quamplurimum conviciatum in audientia omnium, retulit se numquam vel filium, vel aliquem quo ipse primus esse non audeat, missurum, et sicut primus esse volebat in possidendis vel distribuendis, ita ergo conveniens esse ut prior fieret in acquirendis.

The Count, however, indignant at his son’s words, after railing at him very greatly in the hearing of all, declared that he would never send either his son, or anyone with whom he himself would not dare to be first; and just as he wished to be first in possessing or in distributing, so therefore it was fitting that he should become first in acquiring.

Sic pluribus remanentibus pietate abeuntis, deinde lacrimantibus, comes, naves ingressus, buccinis ex eius edicto concrepantibus et diversi generis musicae artis pluribus—ut quisque doctus erat—instrumentis modulantibus, anchoris extractis, vela ventis plurimo apparatu committunt: auraque prospera suffragante, secundo die applicant apud Melitam. Navis vero comitis, caeteras velocitate praecedens, ut primum terram attigit, comes, navi digressus, cum tredecim tantum militibus equos ascendens, plurimam incolarum multitudinem, quae, ut impediret, ad ripam obviam fuerat, aggrediens, multos sternit, reliquos fugat, extremos quosque caedendo per longum insequitur. Vespere autem ab insequendo regrediens, in litore maris cum omni exercitu suo illa nocte hospitium sumpsit.

Thus, with many remaining behind out of piety toward the one departing, and then weeping, the count, having boarded the ships, with the trumpets blaring at his command and with numerous instruments of the art of music of diverse kinds—each as he was skilled—modulating, the anchors having been weighed, they commit the sails to the winds with very great display: and, a favorable breeze assisting, on the second day they make landfall at Malta. But the count’s ship, outstripping the others in speed, as soon as it touched land, the count, having disembarked from the ship, mounting horses with only thirteen soldiers, assailing a very great multitude of inhabitants who had come to the shore to meet them so as to hinder, lays many low, puts the rest to flight, and, cutting down each of the hindmost, pursues for a long distance. Toward evening, however, returning from the pursuit, on the shore of the sea with his whole army he took quarters that night.

Crastino vero illucescente, proprius urbem accedens, obsidione vallavit; circumquaque per insulam suos praedatum mittit. Porro gaytus, qui urbi et insulae principabatur, caeterique cives, bellicis exercitationibus minus assueti, praesentia hostium deterriti, pacem libere ad colloquium cum comite accedendi expetunt: quo a comite concesso, ad tentorium comitis sibi locutum, ut pacem faciant, accedunt. Diversisque circumlocutionibus usi, tandem cum calliditatem principis minus se fallere posse perpendunt, pro libitu comitis primo captivos christianos, quorum plurimam multitudinem infra urbem tenebant, reddunt, et equos et mulos et arma omnia, quae habebant, cum infinita pecunia comiti offerunt.

On the morrow, with day dawning, drawing nearer to the city, he girded it with a blockade; and on every side throughout the island he sends his men to plunder. Furthermore, the gaytus, who held rule over the city and the island, and the other citizens, less accustomed to martial exercises, dismayed by the presence of enemies, seek peace, to approach freely to a colloquy with the count: which, granted by the count, they come to the count’s tent to speak with him, that they may make peace. And having used diverse circumlocutions, at length, when they consider that they are less able to deceive the prince’s cunning, according to the count’s pleasure they first restore the Christian captives, of whom they were holding a very great multitude within the city, and they offer to the count the horses and mules and all the arms which they had, together with boundless money.

Datam unoquoque anno persolvendo determinantes, urbem comiti se serviendam promittunt: sicque more legis suae, sacramentis datis, comiti confoederati sunt. Videntes autem captivos christianos, ab urbe progredientes, prae gaudio suae insperatae liberationis ab imo quoque cordis lacrimis profundi, ligno vel calamis, prout quisque primo inveniebant, compositas cruces in dexteris ferentes, Kyrie eleyson proclamando, ad pedes comitis provolvi, nostri vero ad talem intuitum pietatis affectu lacrimoso rore perfunduntur. Comes ergo, taliter urbe sibi confoederata, captivos, asportet, per naves ordinans, reditum cum magno timore, prae nimio pondere captivorum, ut submersionem veritus, accelerat.

Determining the payment of the due tribute to be discharged each year, they promise to have the city serve the count: and thus, in the manner of their law, with the sacraments given, they were confederated to the count. But seeing the Christian captives, coming forth from the city, for joy of their unhoped-for liberation, they were steeped with tears from the very depth of the heart, bearing in their right hands crosses composed of wood or of reeds, as each first found, proclaiming Kyrie eleyson, they threw themselves at the feet of the count; and our men, at such a sight, are suffused with a tearful dew by an affection of piety. Therefore the count, the city thus confederated to himself, arranging that the captives be carried off by ships, hastens the return with great fear, on account of the excessive weight of the captives, fearing submersion.

Sed dextera Dei, ut credimus, ex eventu patuit: naves per undas sublevans, cubitu uno liberiores super mare ferebat, quam in aditu suo cum eas minus onus gravabat.

But the right hand of God, as we believe, was made plain from the outcome: lifting the ships through the waves, it bore them over the sea one cubit freer than at their entry, when a lesser burden weighed them down.

At cum mare sic reditum accelerat, eminus insulam, quae Golsa dicitur, intuens, illorsum, ut debellet, vela dirigi imperat. Quo applicans, praedis aggrediens, devastat: sicque secum foedus inire cognoscens, suae ditioni assignat.

But as the sea thus hastens the return, gazing from afar at an island which is called Golsa, he commands the sails to be directed thither, so that he may subdue it. Arriving there, launching upon depredations, he devastates it: and thus, perceiving that they are entering a treaty with him, he assigns it to his dominion.

Undique impune per aequora vela dirigens, Siciliam reversus, desiderantibus se fidelibus suis plurima praeda onustus repraesentat. Captivos autem, quos captione erutos secum reduxerat, omnes convocans, liberos facit, offerens eis, si secum in Sicilia remanere velint, villam unam suis sumptibus, loco, quo eligerent, construere debere et de se suis sumptibus necessaria ad lucrandum subministrare; villam etiam eandem francam—idest liberam villam, eo quod omni vectigali vel servili exactione libera in perpetuum foret—subtitulare, sed et illis desiderantibus proprios agros amicosque videre, liberam facultatem abeundi quo vellent concessit, per totam terram suam necessaria et absque pretio Phari transitum tribuens. Porro ipsi cum gaudio Deo et comiti de sua liberatione gratias conferentes, quisque in loca sua, recedunt, per diversa regnorum spatia, prout nationis erant, nomen comitis magnificando dilatantes.

On every side, with impunity, steering his sails across the waters, having returned to Sicily, he presents himself to his faithful, who were longing for him, laden with very much booty. But the captives, whom he had brought back with him, recovered in the capture, calling them all together, he makes free, offering them that, if they should be willing to remain with him in Sicily, he would have to construct for them one villa at his own expense, in a place which they might choose, and from himself, at his own expense, to supply the things necessary for earning a livelihood; and to entitle that same villa franc—i.e., a free villa, because it would be free from every tribute or servile exaction in perpetuity—; but also to those desiring to see their own fields and friends, he granted free faculty of departing wherever they wished, granting throughout his whole land the necessaries and, without price, passage of the Pharos. Furthermore they, with joy, giving thanks to God and to the count for their liberation, each withdraws to his own places; through the various spans of realms, according as they were of their nation, magnifying and spreading abroad the name of the count.

XVII. Anno ergo MXCI Rogerius dux, contra Cusentinos diu rebelles indignatus, exercitu ab omni Apulia coadunato, fratre Boamundo secum accepto, ipsos mense maio obsessum ire disponens, avunculum comitem a Sicilia, ut, sibi auxilium ferendo, illuc occurrere non differat, invitat. Ille, amore nepotis, ab omni Sicilia multa Saracenorum millia excitans, sed et militum copias conducens, quo invitabatur haud segniter accelerat.

17. Therefore in the year 1091 Duke Roger, indignant against the Cosentines long rebellious, having an army gathered together from all Apulia, with his brother Bohemond taken along with him, planning to go to besiege them in the month of May, invites his uncle the count from Sicily not to delay to come there, bringing aid to him. He, out of love for his nephew, rousing from all Sicily many thousands of Saracens, and also hiring forces of soldiers, hastens thither not sluggishly where he was invited.

Cusentini, hostes adversum se accelerare audientes, seipsos vallo et muris muniunt, arma et quae defensioni necessaria erant, aptant, sumptus naturae necessarios infra urbem comportant, defendere, potius quam succumbere, invicem cohortantur. Dux vero et comes sese invicem apud Cusentium obviantes, urbem undique vallant. Dux planiciem obsidione occupat; comes montana conscendens, quo maior labor et hostis infestior imminebat, castris suorum urbem girare imperat.

The Cusentines, hearing that enemies were accelerating against them, fortify themselves with rampart and walls, equip arms and the things necessary for defense, bring within the city the provisions necessary for nature, and exhort one another to defend rather than succumb. The duke and the count, meeting one another at Cosenza, invest the city on all sides. The duke occupies the plain with a siege; the count, ascending the mountain-lands, where the greater labor and a more infesting foe was looming, orders the camps of his men to girdle the city.

Cusentinis itaque ex consilio et edicto principis vallo et sepibus undique clausis, ingrediendi vel egrediendi vel quidlibet introducendi facultate sublata, plurimum deterrentur. Sic iugis decertatio, certamen assiduum. Sed Cusentinis maior spes defensionis in fundibulis et sagittis erat: proprius accedere, ut ense tenus cum nostris decertarent, periculosum ducebant.

Thus, with the Cosentines, by the counsel and edict of the prince, the rampart and palisades being closed on every side, and the faculty of entering or exiting or of introducing anything removed, they are greatly deterred. Thus a continual fighting, an assiduous contest. But for the Cosentines a greater hope of defense was in slings and arrows: to come nearer, to contend with our men at sword-range, they deemed perilous.

Porro comes interdum ad deditionem hostes mulcendo blandiri, frequentius interminando deterrere, suos instare, hortari, omnia circumire, nil intentatum relinquere, quae facienda erant prior adesse, ad certamen suos praecedere, in recedendo subsequi, omnia prudenti ordinatione providere studebat, exemplo sui—ad quae facienda erant—omnes vigilantiores reddens. Cusentini itaque, constantiam comitis iampridem cognoscentes et hostes a finibus suis spe arcendi decidentes, consilio inter se habito, urbis deditionem, si forte de offensione suae rebellionis veniam a duce et comite mereantur, aptare student. Primo quod comitem prudentioris consilii virura esse sciebant, et cuius ordinatione omnia regebantur, conventiones, se suumque consilium supplices ei committunt, sine ipso nihil acturi a quo sciebant, postquam promitteret, sine fraude vel sui detrimento, ubi vitari posset, sibi consilium dari.

Moreover, the count at times strove to coax the enemies to surrender by soothing and blandishing, more often to deter by threatening; he urged his own men on, exhorted them, went round everything, left nothing unattempted, was the first to be present at the things that had to be done, to the contest he went before his men, in a withdrawal he followed after, he took care to provide for everything by prudent ordination, by his own example—toward the things that had to be done—making all more vigilant. The Cusentines therefore, long since recognizing the constancy of the count and, abandoning the hope of keeping the enemies from their borders, having held counsel among themselves, strive to arrange the city’s surrender, if perchance they may merit from the duke and the count a pardon for the offense of their rebellion. First, because they knew the count to be a man of more prudent counsel, and one by whose ordination all things were governed, the conventions, themselves, and their plan they, as suppliants, commit to him, about to do nothing without him—from whom they knew, once he should promise, that counsel would be given to them without fraud or to their own detriment, when it could be avoided.

Ille vero eorum verba, ut semper pius et pacis amator, suscipiens, ita prudenter rem ordinavit, ut et dux pro libitu suo urbe potiretur et Cusentini ducis gratia reconciliari non fraudarentur.

He, indeed, receiving their words—as ever pious and a lover of peace—so prudently ordered the matter that both the duke might, at his own pleasure, gain possession of the city, and the Cusentines should not be defrauded of being reconciled to the duke’s grace.

Dux, avunculi sui consilio et strenuitate, urbe potitus, antequam expeditio solvatur, arte coementaria castrum ad urbem a tali praesumptione ulterius prohibenda, in altiori urbis iugo firmat; comiti autem pro recompensatione servitii sibi exhibiti, medietatem Cusentiae urbis assignat. Sicque expeditione mense iulio soluta, dux in Apuliam, comes vero in Siciliam, digrediuntur.

The duke, by the counsel and strenuity of his uncle, having gained possession of the city, before the expedition is dissolved, by the art of masonry he fortifies a castle by the city, on the higher ridge of the city, for the further prohibiting of such presumption; but to the count, as recompense for the service exhibited to him, he assigns one half of the city of Cusentia. And so, the expedition having been dissolved in the month of July, the duke departs into Apulia, but the count into Sicily.

Comes autem in sua parte castrum firmat; urbemque, cum iam communis esset, ita ordinat, ut plus ex medietate postmodum duci perveniret, quam primo cum sine comparticipe totius urbis redditus possideret.

The count, moreover, on his side strengthens the castle; and the city, since it was now common, he so arranges it that thereafter more from the moiety would accrue to the duke than at first, when, without a co-participant, he possessed the revenues of the whole city.

XVIII. His itaque peractis, quia per successionem temporum ea, quae gesta sunt vel acciderunt, prout fuerunt, nos scripturos repromisimus, ordo temporis damnosum dolorem Siciliae et Calabriae nos, quin huic libro inseramus, praetergredi vetat; quamvis pluribus in praesentia sui hoc idem ad memoriam revocare, onerosum, quasi dolorem renovando, videatur. Nam sunt nonnulli, qui prae nimio affectu, quem erga ipsum, de quo sermo fit, habuerunt, ut, si in eorum praesentia quod accidit recitatur, a lacrimis minime se possunt continere, ac si recens sit quod narratur.

18. With these things, therefore, completed, since through the succession of times we have promised to write those things which were done or happened just as they were, the order of time forbids us to pass by, without inserting into this book, the ruinous sorrow of Sicily and Calabria; although to many, to recall this same thing to memory in their presence seems burdensome, as if by renewing the pain. For there are some who, because of the excessive affection which they had toward the very one about whom the discourse is, if what happened is recited in their presence, are by no means able to contain themselves from tears, as if what is narrated were recent.

Iordanus enim, filius comitis, propter strenuitatem suam omnibus amabilis, quem plures—quia iam Gaufredum, quod dolorem non minuit, morbus elephantinus pervaserat—comitis haeredem futurum suspicabantur—nam neque alium masculum habebat#151;, apud Syracusam, sui iuris urbem, febre synocho percussus est. Quod cum patri nuntiatum fuisset, illorsum praevenire mortem accelerat, sed, morbo ingravescente, ultima determinatio vitae Iordani patre velocior fuit.

For Jordan, the count’s son, on account of his strenuousness lovable to all, whom many—since already Geoffrey, which did not lessen the grief, the elephantine disease had invaded—suspected would be the count’s heir—for he had no other male#151;, at Syracuse, a city of its own right, was struck by a synochal fever. When this had been reported to his father, he hastens thither to forestall death, but, as the disease grew worse, the ultimate determination of Jordan’s life was swifter than his father.

Comes autem urbem ingressus, ut funus filii conspexit, intolerabili dolore corripitur; omnesque, qui cum ipso advenerant, doloris participes facti, lacrimoso planctu rapiuntur; pluresque patris dolor, quam Iordani mors, ad lacrimas pertrahebat. Urbs tota lacrimoso ululatu ventilatur, in tantum, ut ipsos Saracenos, nostro generi invisos, non quidem ex amore, sed ex moerore quo nostros affici videbant, pietatis affectus pervadens, ad lacrimas usque pertraheret. Comes itaque, funus decenter ordinans, Traynam corpus, ad porticum sancti Nicolai, solemniter humandum deducit, multa beneficia eidem ecclesiae, sed ed aliis, pro redemptione animae eius conferens: anno Domini incarnationis MXCII.

The count, however, having entered the city, as soon as he beheld the funeral of his son, is seized with intolerable grief; and all who had come with him, made participants in the sorrow, are swept into tearful lament; and more the father’s pain than Jordan’s death was drawing many to tears. The whole city is shaken with tearful ululation, to such an extent that even the Saracens themselves, hostile to our race—not indeed out of love, but out of the grief with which they saw our people affected—an impulse of piety pervading them, were drawn even to tears. The count therefore, fittingly arranging the funeral, conveys the body to Trayna, to the portico of Saint Nicholas, to be solemnly interred, bestowing many benefactions upon that same church, and also upon others, for the redemption of his soul: in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1092.

Porro cives urbis Pentargae, quae iuris Iordani hactenus fuerat, mortem Iordani, quem plurimum pertimescebant, audientes, casso gaudio rapiuntur atque, in insolentiam prorumpentes, iugum nostrae gentis rebellando a se excutere frustra nituntur. Nam comes, filio humato, nil remoratus, cum sola familia sua illos obsessum vadit, expeditionem ab omni Sicilia se illuc subsequi imperans. Sicque vi superans, illos, qui tam inepti consilii auctores fuerant, suspensos extinxit; reliquos tormentis diversis afficiens, urbis stultitiam sedavit.

Moreover, the citizens of the city of Pentarga, which had hitherto been under Jordan’s jurisdiction, hearing of Jordan’s death—whom they greatly dreaded—are seized by empty joy and, breaking out into insolence, strive in vain, by rebelling, to shake off from themselves the yoke of our nation. For the count, his son buried, delaying not at all, with only his own household goes to besiege them, ordering the expedition from all Sicily to follow him thither. And thus, overcoming by force, those who had been authors of so inept a counsel he put to death by hanging; the rest, afflicting with various torments, he calmed the city’s stupidity.

XIX. Patre orbo, gravi morbo sic sublato filio,
Ne doleret, quod careret haereditali gaudio,
Ditat prole, quasi flore superna provisio.
Impraegnatur ac gravatur, matris gaudens uterus
Intumescit: infans crescit naturae successibus.

19. The father being bereft, with the son thus taken away by grave disease,
Lest he might grieve that he lacked the hereditary joy,
Doth enrich with progeny, as with a flower, supernal provision.
The mother’s rejoicing womb is impregnated and made heavy
It swells: the infant grows by nature’s successions.

Orat pater, sed et mater, Deum, ut sit masculus.
Implet vota forma tota, dum semen coagulat.
Fit natura iam secura infra matris viscera!

The father prays, and the mother too, to God, that it may be male.
The whole form fulfills the vows, while the seed coagulates.
Now nature becomes secure within the mother's viscera!

Nonus mensis spe suspensis, sic partus accelerat.
Infans prodit; nullus odit: fit cunctis laetitia.
Obstetrices sunt felices ad maris inditia.

The ninth month, with hope suspended, thus accelerates the delivery.
The infant comes forth; no one hates: there is joy for all.
The midwives are happy at the indications of a male.

     Nuntiatus puer natus nova praestat gaudia!
Mater audit, unde plaudit, fit doloris nescia;
     Festinatur: nuntiatur haec patri laetitia !
Qui congaudens atque plaudens, thura precum coelitus
     Supplex litat atque ditat legatum muneribus
Plura iubet, prout lubet, largiri pauperibus.
     Dolor mortis, gravis, fortis, iam sublati filii
Sit lenitus et oblitus spe nascentis gaudii.

     The boy, announced as born, furnishes new joys!
The mother hears, whereupon she applauds, and becomes unaware of pain;
     There is haste: this joy is announced to the father !
Qui, rejoicing together and applauding, offers heavenward the incense of prayers,
     as a suppliant he sacrifices and enriches the envoy with gifts;
He bids more, as it pleases him, to be lavished upon the poor.
     The pain of the death, grievous, strong, of the son already carried off,
let it be softened and forgotten by the hope of a joy being born.

Simon, fonte pictus fronte inunctione chrismatis,
Haeredatur: solidatur dux futurus siculus.
Calabrenses suos enses sibi optant adici
Pater totum implet votum, dum concedit fieri.

Simon, at the font painted on the forehead by the inunction of chrism,
He is made heir: the future Sicilian duke is confirmed.
The Calabrians desire their own swords to be added to him,
The father fulfills the whole vow, as he grants it to be done.

XX. Porro dux Rogerius, uxorem habens praeclarae nobilitatis, neptem videlicet Francorum regis Philippi, filiam Flandrensium marchionis Roberti, quem Frisium appellabant, Adalam nomine, de qua duarum sobolum pater existebat, apud Melfam, Apuliae urbem, febre correptus, graviter torquebatur, anno Verbi incarnati MXCIII. Morbo itaque ingravescente, iam paene vitalibus interclusis, cum ipsis in partibus peritissimi medici attestantur, sic natura contra usum attonita oberrabat, ut ab ipsis medicis nec pulsu, nec urina, sed neque aliis prognosticorum indiciis infirmitatis determinatio posset comprehendi. Qua de re cum de ipso etiam ab ipsis medicis desperari videretur, fama, quasi iam obiisset, totam Apuliam sed et Calabriam turbavit.

20. Furthermore Duke Roger, having a wife of very illustrious nobility—namely the niece of Philip, king of the Franks, the daughter of Robert, marquis of the Flemings, whom they called the Frisian, Adala by name—by whom he was the father of two children—at Melfi, a city of Apulia, being seized by a fever, was grievously tormented, in the year of the Word incarnate 1093. Therefore, as the disease grew worse, the vital functions now almost shut off, as the most expert physicians in those parts attest, nature wandered, astonished contrary to usage, such that by the physicians neither from the pulse, nor the urine, nor yet from other indications of prognostics could the determination of the infirmity be comprehended. Wherefore, since even by the physicians themselves he seemed to be despaired of, a report, as if he had already died, disturbed all Apulia and even Calabria.

Ea tempestate Boamundus apud Calabriam morabatur. Qui, cum fratrem, fama referente, iam obisse audisset, credulus, castra, quae iuris fratris fuerant, irrumpens, sacramentis sibi confoederare persuadet: ita tamen discernens, ut, si frater, quod se nolle protestabatur, iam obiisset, salva fidelitate legalium haeredum suorum, videlicet fratris, sibi, quasi fideli eorundem haeredum patruo, usque ad intelligibilem aetatem, qua ipsi legitime terram regere cognoscerent, fideles persisterent. Comes autem Rogerius, eum talia facere audiens, indignatione permotus, quod talia se inconsulto facere praesumpserit, veritus etiam, quamvis hanc fidelitatem honeste discernens susciperet, pictis verbis fraudem occultans, in posterum contra nepotes, ambitione captus, aliquid fraudis machinaretur, a suis insequi praecipiens, a tota Calabria arcet.

At that time Bohemond was tarrying in Calabria. And when, with rumor reporting it, he had heard that his brother had already died, being credulous, breaking into the camps which had been of his brother’s right, he persuades them to be conjoined to himself by oaths; yet distinguishing thus, that if his brother (which, he was professing, he did not wish) had already died, with the fealty of his lawful heirs preserved, namely his brother’s, they should persist faithful to himself, as to the faithful paternal uncle of those same heirs, until the age of understanding, at which they themselves might know how lawfully to rule the land. But Count Roger, hearing that he was doing such things, moved with indignation that he had presumed to do such things without his counsel, and also fearing lest, although he might accept this fealty, honorably distinguished, he—concealing fraud under painted words, seized by ambition—might hereafter contrive some deceit against his grandsons, ordering his men to pursue him, shuts him out from all Calabria.

XXI. Plures etiam, audita fama mortis ducis, in insolentiam prorumpentes, de iis quae duci competebant, distrahendo, sibi usurpare moliebantur. Unde et Guillelmus de Grantemanil, summa cupiditate correptus, in insolentiam proclivis declinans, Rossanam, Calabriae urbem, pervadens intrat: dicens sibi iure competere, ut qui sororem ducis, filiam videlicet Guiscardi, Mabiliam nomine, uxorem habebat, haereditatis quoque particeps fieret.

21. Several also, the rumor of the duke’s death having been heard, breaking out into insolence, were endeavoring to usurp for themselves, by selling off, those things which pertained to the duke. Whence also William of Grantemanil, seized with utmost cupidity, declining, prone to insolence, invades and enters Rossano, a city of Calabria: saying that it belonged to him by right—inasmuch as he had the duke’s sister, namely the daughter of Guiscard, by name Mabilia, as wife—that he should become a participant in the inheritance as well.

Sic quae ducis fuerant, propter imbecillitatem haeredum, quisque quantae fidei erga ipsos haeredes fieret ostentans, sibi distrahendo usurpabat.

Thus, the things which had been the duke’s, because of the imbecility of the heirs, each man, ostentating of how great a fidelity he was toward those same heirs, was usurping for himself by selling them off.

Sed natura, quae iam diu peregrina oberraverat, in sui iuris proprietatem reversa, contra spem medicorum convalere incipit. Sicque sanitate diatim excrescente, ad integrum pristinae restitutus est sanitati. Quod Boamundus audiens, magna mentis alacritate Melfi, ubi fratrem esse sciebat, de eius sanitatis recuperatione congavisurus occurrit, castra, quae sibi confoederaverat, reddens; quae fecerat, non iam dolose fecisse ostendit.

But nature, which for a long time had wandered abroad as a peregrine, having returned into the proprietorship of its own right, begins to grow well contrary to the physicians’ expectation. And thus, with health increasing day by day, he was restored in full to his pristine health. Which Boamund, hearing, with great alacrity of mind hastened to Melfi, where he knew his brother to be, to rejoice together over his recovery of health, giving back the strongholds which he had confederated to himself; he showed that what he had done, he had not done deceitfully.

Porro Guillelmus de Grantemanil, turpi illectus avaritia, nec de domini sui recuperatione sanitatis congavisurus, nec, ut urbem, quam pervaserat, reddat, accedere curavit, sed impudenti fronte fraudem ostentans, eandem urbem pro posse muniens, contra ipsum ducem, si forte impugnare attentaret, armavit. Comes autem Rogerius, super hac re plurimum indignatus, tamen, ut sapiens vir—quia neptis maritus erat—legato ad ipsum misso, ad reconciliationem contra dominum suum urbem reddendo hortatur. At, dum blandimentis minus praevalet, in iram totus prorumpens, iurat se et urbem, quam nequiter pervaserat, ablaturum, et omnia, quae ex licentia ducis ante tenuerat, exhaeredato sublaturum.

Furthermore William of Grandmesnil, enticed by base avarice, neither intending to rejoice together at his lord’s recovery of health, nor caring to come to return the city which he had seized, but displaying his fraud with an impudent brow, fortifying that same city to the extent of his power, armed it against the duke himself, in case he should perhaps attempt to assail it. But Count Roger, very indignant over this matter, yet, as a wise man—for he was the husband of his niece—having sent a legate to him, urges him to reconciliation by returning the city to his lord. But, when he prevails less by blandishments, bursting wholly into wrath, he swears that he will carry off the city which he had wickedly seized, and that he will take away, with him disinherited, all the things which he had previously held by the duke’s license.

XXII. Sicque potius ipse ducem ad expeditionem super Guillelmum urgens, quam ipse a duce ad iniuriam ulciscendam submoveretur, exercitu admoto, ab utrisque Castri-villam obsessum itur, anno incarnati Salvatoris MXCIIII. Hoc autem operimentum fraudis suae Guillelmus sibi opponebat, quod, cum ab urbicolis primo infra urbem susceptus est, illis improvisa determinatione iureiurando firmaverat, se numquam alicui urbem redditurum, excepto Lodovisio, filio ducis, et hoc quia parvulus erat, post decem annos futuros fidelitatem, quam duci iuraverat, solvere minoris offensae vel opprobrii ducens, quam quod periuris et fraudatoribus iuraverat.

22. And so, rather himself urging the duke to an expedition against William than being removed by the duke from avenging the injury, with the army brought up, by both parties a siege is undertaken of Castri-villa, in the year of the Incarnate Savior 1094. But William was putting forward this cover for his own fraud, that when he was first received within the city by the townspeople, he had confirmed to them by a solemn oath, with an unexpected stipulation, that he would never hand over the city to anyone except Lodovisius, the son of the duke—and this because he was a little boy—deeming it a lesser offense or reproach, after ten years to come, to dissolve the fealty which he had sworn to the duke, than to violate what he had sworn to perjurers and defrauders.

Sic avara ambitio, sed et uxoris prava persuasio, mentem iuvenis, a bono honestoque discedendo, proclive coecatam sibi illexerat.

Thus avaricious ambition, and also the perverse persuasion of his wife, had lured to itself the mind of the young man, prone and blinded by departing from the good and the honorable.

Dux ab omni Apulia equitum peditumque copiis, fratre Boamundo sibi in auxilium cum Ydrontinis et Tarentinis et reliquis, qui sui iuris erant, assumptis, Vallem Gratensem, versus Castri-villam occupat. Comes vero multa millia Saracenorum a Sicilia et Calabria conducens, equitum quoque sive peditum Christianorum copias illorsum nepoti occurrere accelerans non relaxat.

The Duke, from all Apulia with the forces of horse and foot, having taken to his aid his brother Bohemond with the Hydrontines and Tarentines and the rest who were of his own jurisdiction, occupies the Gratan Valley, toward Castri-villa. The Count, however, hiring many thousands of Saracens from Sicily and Calabria, likewise does not slacken, hastening thither the forces of Christian horse and foot to meet his nephew.

Porro Guillelmus de Grantemanil, auctoritatis viros adversum se conspirasse et obsidionem sibi imminere cognoscens, sese ad defendendum pro posse aptat. Dumque sibi auxilia undecumque conducere nititur, quamvis mos sit iuvenibus talibus exercitiis, causa militaris laudis, sed et quaestus libenter interesse, tam iram comitis quam ducis veriti, minime sibi, cum multa promitteret, associari praesumebant, maxime quia fortunam sibi adversam, propter quod culpa in ipsum cum aliqua inhonestate retorquebatur, praenotantes metuebant.

Moreover William of Grandmesnil, learning that men of authority had conspired against him and that a siege was imminent upon him, adapts himself to defend, to the extent of his power. And while he strives to hire auxiliaries for himself from wherever, although it is the custom for youths to take part willingly in such exercises for the sake of military praise and also of gain, fearing the anger of both the count and the duke, they by no means presumed to associate themselves with him, though he was promising many things, especially because, fore-noting fortune adverse to him—on account of which blame was being retorted upon him with some dishonor—they were afraid.

Dux autem in valle Gratensi comitem, dum veniat, sustinet; castrum, quod Sancti Marci dicitur, usque properans, deditione civium tali pactione firmata, suscipit, ut in perpetuum—dum in vita comes fuerit illud—Guillelmo non reddant. Inde Rossanam usque pertransiens, quia Guillelmus filios potentiorum civium sibi obsides adduxerat, minus sibi assentientes offendit. Sed quia ipse dux iam ante annum, contra voluntatem Graecorum, qui eidem urbi maxima ex parte principabantur, graeco archiepiscopo eiusdem sedis defuncto, successorem latinum eligendo subrogaverat, sed necdum consacratione firmatus erat, electione latini frustrata, dum a duce conceditur ut de sua gente archiepiscopum sibi Graeci pro libitu eligant, favorem illorum adeptus, urbem quoque illorum deditione obtinuit.

The duke, however, in the Gratan valley awaits the count while he comes; hurrying on as far as the castle which is called Saint Mark’s, he receives it by the surrender of the citizens, a pact having been ratified on these terms: that in perpetuity—as long as the count shall be alive—they will not give it back to William. Thence, passing through as far as Rossano, because William had brought to himself as hostages the sons of the more powerful citizens, he found them less assenting to him. But because the duke himself already a year before, against the will of the Greeks, who for the most part held sway over that city, upon the death of the Greek archbishop of the same see, had substituted a Latin successor by choosing him, but he had not yet been confirmed by consecration, with the election of the Latin frustrated, when it is granted by the duke that the Greeks may choose for themselves an archbishop from their own people at their pleasure, having obtained their favor, he also gained possession of the city by their surrender.

Sed castrum oppugnans, fidelibus Guillelmi renitentibus, minime praevaluit.

But assaulting the castle, with William’s faithful resisting, he in no way prevailed.

Porro comes cum exercitu veniens, de duce, qui iam tantum profecerat, gavisus, iuxta castrum Tarsae, super fluvium, qui a Sancto Marco defluit—quo iam dux tentoria sua: fixerat—castrametatus est.

Moreover the count, coming with the army, rejoicing concerning the duke, who had already progressed so much, encamped next to the castle of Tarsa, above the river which flows down from Saint Mark—where the duke had already his tents: pitched—.

Hic Guillelmus, a comite invitatus, ut securus ad colloquium veniat, accessit. Multisque circumventionibus usus, dum et fraudem suam operiret et quae pervaserat retinetur, rursus, sapientum verbis obviantibus, minus honeste praevalet. Consilio comitis persuaserat, quod duci restituit.

Here William, invited by the count to come safely to a colloquy, approached. And employing many circumventions, while he both covered his fraud and retained what he had usurped, again, with the words of the wise opposing, he prevails less honorably. By the counsel of the count he was persuaded to restore it to the duke.

Dux autem, ius suum expetendo, Guillelmum exequens reconciliari sibi, ut, iudicio comitis caeterorumque prudentum, qui interant, virorum, ius teneat, quod sibi tandiu iniurius extiterat, sacramento et fide promissa obtestatur. Qui, sui reatus conscius et iudicio praegravari timens, dum renuit, licentia abeundi accepta, Castri-villam impune redit.

The duke, however, in seeking his right, pursuing William, adjures him to be reconciled to him, that, by the judgment of the count and the other prudent men who were present, he may hold the right which had for so long been unjustly withheld from him, with an oath and pledged faith promised. But he, conscious of his own guilt and fearing to be overborne by a judgment, while he refuses, having received leave to depart, returns unpunished to Castri-villam.

Quem dux et comes in crastinum cum omni exercitu subsequenti castrum obsidione vallant, sicque undique ligno et armatorum copiis sepiendo cingentes, ut nulla ex parte aditus ingrediendi, vel aliquid introducendi, Castri-villensibus pateret. Sed infra muros modicum victus habentes, dum per tres hebdomadas, imminente hoste, premuntur, exhaustisque quae ad victum habebant, Guillelmus, quod ut faceret primo expetebatur, ut si susciperetur expetens, se ius ducis tenere repromittit. Ad quod exequendum, dum fideiussores ad placitum ducis non habet, castra quae de ipso habebat, pro plegio ponit.

Whom the duke and the count on the morrow, with the whole army following, circumvallate the castle with a siege, and thus, hedging and girding it on every side with timber and with companies of armed men, so that on no side did an access for entering, or for bringing anything in, lie open to the Castri-villa inhabitants. But having scant victual within the walls, while for three weeks, with the enemy imminent, they are pressed, and their supplies for sustenance exhausted, William—what at the first he had been sought to do—promises anew, if he might be received upon his petition, that he holds the duke’s right. To execute this, since he does not have sureties to the duke’s pleasure, he puts in pledge the castles which he held of him.

Duci, in sua virtute usque ad determinatum diem, quo ius teneatur deliberatum, per manum comitis securus factus, quod ius exequi praevaleat, castra sua sibi reddantur. Instante itaque termino iuris tenendi, loco determinato convenientes, querimonias suas adversus Guillelmum exponit. Sed ille modicum iuris habens, dum minus rhetorice argumentatur, iudicio his, quae sub duce habebat, privatur.

To the duke, made secure in his own virtue up to the determined day—on which it had been resolved that the right be held—by the hand of the count, so that he might prevail to execute that right, his camps were returned to him. Therefore, with the term for holding the right pressing, and meeting at the appointed place, he sets forth his complaints against William. But he, having little right, while he argues with less rhetoric, by judgment is deprived of those things which he held under the duke.

At, dum iudicio contradicere molitur, minus facultatis vel iuris habens, terris privatus, cum uxore ad imperatorem Constantinopolitanum transivit; ubi aliquantisper commoratus, tandem, cum multa pecunia rediens, duci, ut pio et misericordi viro, reconciliatus, terram, quam amiserat, excepto castro Sancti Marci, recipit.

But, while he endeavors to contradict the judgment, having little means or right, deprived of his lands, he passed over with his wife to the Constantinopolitan emperor; where, having tarried for some time, at length, returning with much money, reconciled to the duke, as to a pious and merciful man, he receives back the land which he had lost, except the castle of Saint Mark.

XXIII. Cum autem inter Urbanum apostolicum et Henricum, Theutonicorum imperatorem, dissentiones efferbuissent, quibusdam controversiis inter Corradum, eiusdem Henrici filium, ac patrem—quod seriatim longum est enarrare—insurgentibus, Corradus, irato animo, a patre discedens, ad apostolicum et Mathildem marchisam, quae ei ex fidelitate adhaerebat, se contulit, eorum auxilio plurimum per Italiam rebellis existens. At cum iuvenis et sine uxore esset, et sumptibus ad id, quod coeperat, necessariis minus abundaret, consilio apostolici et praefatae marchisae Mathildis per Corradum comitem, quem ad id legationis peragendum direxerunt, filiam Siculorum Calabrensiumve comitis sibi in matrimonium concedendam expetit.

23. But when dissensions had boiled up between Urban, the Apostolic, and Henry, emperor of the Teutons, with certain controversies arising between Conrad, that same Henry’s son, and his father—which it is too long to recount in detail—Conrad, with an irate mind, departing from his father, betook himself to the Apostolic and to Mathilda the marchioness, who adhered to him out of fidelity, by whose aid he existed as very much a rebel throughout Italy. But since he was a youth and without a wife, and was less abounding in the expenses necessary for that which he had begun, by the counsel of the Apostolic and of the aforesaid marchioness Mathilda, through Count Conrad, whom they sent to carry out that legation, he sought that the daughter of the count of the Sicilians or of the Calabrians be granted to him in marriage.

Apostolicus etiam literas suas comiti, ut sibi familiari et amico, ad hoc idem dirigens, ad concedendum hortatur, dicens sibi magno honori et proficuo futurum, si filia filio regis futuro sponso iungatur, et iuvenis, sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae fidelitate adhaerens, sed sumptibus, quibus contra patrem, qui eum iniuste oppugnabat, minus sufficiens, quos pater cum filio daret, viribus victus ad debellandos inimicos sanctae Dei Ecclesiae praevaleret.

The Apostolic also, directing his letters to the count, as to one familiar and a friend, for this same purpose, exhorts him to concede, saying that it will be to him a great honor and a profit if the daughter be joined to the son of the king as his future spouse; and that the youth, adhering in fidelity to the Holy Roman Church, but less sufficient in expenses with which to act against his father, who was unjustly assailing him, by means of those which a father would give with a son, strengthened in resources, would prevail to war down the enemies of the holy Church of God.

Comes autem, hac legatione percepta et suasoriis literis apostolici viri perlectis, usus consilio fidelium suorum et maxime Roberti, Traynensis episcopi, per quem omnem convenientiam Corradi exquirit—nam italus erat et illarum partium gnarus—quod expetebatur, concedit, et ab utrisque partibus exequendum sacramentis firmare fecit. Nuptiarum itaque die determinato Corradus comes, a comite Rogerio pluribus munificentiis honoratus, reditum, unde venerat, accelerat; anhelumque de relatione legationis, dominum, nuptias concessas accelerans denunciat, plurimum laetificat. Porro comes Rogerius, apparatis iis quae ad id officii congruebant, plurima classe per episcopum Traynensem et alios barones suos filiam, multis thesaurorum exeniis ditatam, Pisam usque conducere fecit: ubi filius regis obvius cum omni honorificentia suscipiens, authentice dispensata solemnes nuptias celebravit, anno Verbi incarnati MXCV.

The count, however, this legation received and the persuasive letters of the apostolic man read through, using the counsel of his faithful men and especially of Robert, the bishop of Traina, through whom he inquires into all the conveniency regarding Conrad—for he was Italian and knowledgeable of those parts—grants what was sought, and caused it to be secured by oaths from both parties for execution. Therefore, the day of the nuptials having been fixed, Count Conrad, honored by Count Roger with many munificences, hastens his return to whence he had come; and, breathless in delivering the report of the legation, he announces to his lord the nuptials granted, urging their acceleration, and makes him exceedingly glad. Moreover Count Roger, the things having been prepared which were congruent to that office, with a very great fleet, through the bishop of Traina and his other barons, had his daughter, enriched with many gifts of treasures, escorted as far as Pisa: where the son of the king, meeting her, received her with all honor, and, an authentic dispensation having been made, celebrated the solemn nuptials, in the year of the Incarnate Word 1095.

XXIV. Porro dux Rogerius, adhuc iuvenis et nil malae suspicionis adversus aliquem habens, sed ex sui cordis puritate alionum mentes diiudicans, Longobardos aeque ut Normannos—quia ex partae matris ex eorum gente erat—sibi fideles credens et eorum genus nostrae gentis invisum minus discernens, castra sua tuenda eis haud secus ac Normannis delegabat. Unde accidit ut, cum apud Malfam, minus sibi prospiciendo, idem faceret, Malfetani urbe et castris, quae Guiscardus ad perfidiam eorum comprimendam ibidem fecerat, pro libitu suo utentes, liberam facultatem fraudis suae exercendae nacti, iugum gentis nostrae et ducis, quia moris nostri executor erat, a se excutere, nec tributum et servitium statutum persolvere, sed et ipsi duci ad eandem urbem accedendi, omnibus fidelibus suis exclusis, aditum arroganter denegarent.

24. Moreover Duke Roger, still a young man and harboring no ill suspicion against anyone, but judging the minds of others from the purity of his own heart, believing the Lombards equally as the Normans—because on the mother’s side he was of their people—to be faithful to him, and less discerning that their race was odious to our race, delegated to them the guarding of his camps no otherwise than to the Normans. Whence it happened that, when at Malfa, looking out for himself less, he did the same, the Malfetani, using at their pleasure the city and the forts which Guiscard had made there to restrain their perfidy, having gotten free scope to exercise their fraud, sought to shake off from themselves the yoke of our people and of the duke, since he was the executor of our custom, and not to pay the appointed tribute and service; nay more, they arrogantly denied even to the duke himself access to approach that city, all his faithful excluded.

Dux autem, videns tantum damnum sibi illatum, de credulitate, quam erga eos habuerat, sero poenitens, a comite et caeteris fidelibus suis consilium subiugandi eos requirit. Sicque avunculo comiti, ut sibi attentissime succurrat, medietatem urbis sibi, si subiugare possent, concedens, ab omni Apulia et Calabria navali et equestri exercitu admoto, peditum etiam copiis certatim accelerat, anno incarnationis Domini MXCVI. Urbem itaque a procintu maris navibus cingentes, per praecipitia circumadiacentium montium equitum et peditum copias prudenter ex consilio et opere comitis ordinantes, undique obsidione vallant.

The duke, however, seeing so great a damage inflicted upon himself, late repentant of the credulity which he had had toward them, asks counsel from the count and his other faithful for subjugating them. And so, granting to his uncle the count, that he might most attentively succor him, half of the city, if they could subjugate it, with a naval and equestrian army brought up from all Apulia and Calabria, and with infantry forces as well he hastens eagerly, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1096. Encircling the city, then, with ships from the sea-front, and, over the precipices of the surrounding mountains, prudently arranging by the counsel and agency of the count the forces of horse and foot, they gird it round with a siege on every side.

Sic itaque urbem opprimendo, profecto, ut credimus, obtinuissent, nisi infortunium tale, quale subtitulando annotabimus, intercessisset.

So thus, by oppressing the city, assuredly, as we believe, they would have obtained it, had not a misfortune of such a kind, as we shall annotate by a subtitle, intervened.

Boamundus namque, ducis auxilio simulato, et ab ipso submonitus, adveniens, plus fratri ad damnum quam ad proficuum, non tamen, ut credimus, ex industria factus est. Ipso anno, ex edictu Urbani papae expeditio versus Ierusalem ab undique terrarum ferventissima erat. Boamundus autem, qui iam dudum cum Guiscardo patre Romaniam pervaserat et semper eam sibi subiugare cupiens erat, videns plurimam multitudinem per Apuliam, (sed sine principe), illorsum accelerare, princeps exercitus, sibi eos alligando, fieri volens, signum eiusdem expeditionis, crucem videlicet, vestibus suis apponit.

For Bohemond, namely, with the duke’s aid simulated, and having been prompted by him, arriving, was more to his brother’s harm than to his profit, yet not, as we believe, done intentionally. In that same year, by the edict of Pope Urban, the expedition toward Jerusalem was most fervent from every quarter of the lands. Bohemond, however, who long before had overrun Romania with his father Guiscard and was always desiring to subjugate it to himself, seeing a very great multitude through Apulia, (but without a prince), hastening thither, wishing to become prince of the army by binding them to himself, fastens the sign of that same expedition, namely the cross, upon his garments.

Porro iuventus bellica totius exercitus, tam ducis, quam comitis, novarum rerum, ut in tali aetate assolet, appetens, visa cruce Boamundi et ab ipso submoniti ad id faciendum, certatim concurrunt. Sicque, crucibus sumptis, fines christiani nominis ulterius non attentare, donec paganorum fines pervadant, absque cunctatione voto obligantur. Dux autem et comes, exercitum suum maxima ex parte sibi taliter defecisse videntes, tristes expeditionem solvunt: sicque urbs, pene usque ad deditionem vexata, tali infortunio liberatur.

Moreover the warlike youth of the whole army, both of the duke and of the count, appetent of novelties, as is wont at such an age, upon seeing the cross of Boamund and being admonished by him to do this, run together in eager emulation. And so, the crosses taken up, they are bound by vow, without hesitation, not to attempt any further the borders of the Christian name, until they shall pervade the borders of the pagans. But the duke and the count, seeing their army for the greater part thus defect from them, sorrowful, dissolve the expedition: and thus the city, vexed almost to surrender, is delivered by such misfortune.

Boamundus mare transiit: dux in Apuliam secedit; comes Siciliam revertitur. Urbs obsessione gaudens liberatur.

Boamundus crossed the sea: the duke withdraws into Apulia; the count returns to Sicily. The city, rejoicing, is freed from the siege.

XXV. Colomanus autem, rex Ungarorum, audiens famam Siculorum gloriosi comitis Rogerii, legatos dirigens, filiam suam in matrimonium concedi expostulat. Ille vero, quamvis honesti viri, qui ad hoc venerant, essent, tamen illos honeste a se dimittens, de suis etiam, ne fallatur, cum ipsis dirigens remandat, ut, si executum quod coeperat velit, alicuius auctoritatis gradus vel ordinis personas, quibus facilius credatur, ad id confirmandum mittat.

25. Coloman, moreover, king of the Hungarians, hearing the fame of the glorious Count Roger of the Sicilians, sending envoys, demands that his daughter be granted in marriage. He, however, although the men who had come for this were honorable men, yet, dismissing them honorably from him, also sending some of his own with them, lest he be deceived, sends back word that, if he wishes to execute what he had begun, he should send persons of some rank or order of authority, in whom it is more easy to trust, to confirm it.

Qui, anhelus exequi, Arduinum, Ioviensem episcopum, et Thomam comitem idem expostulatum mittit. Comes autem eos honeste accipiens, secum detinuit, et, de suis honestos et callidos viros apud Pannoniam mittens, in eorum praesentia a potentioribus regionis illius exequenda postulabatur iuramento firmare exigit. Quod rex libenter annuens per suum ducem, nomine Alivum, et reliquos non minoris dignitatis viros, omnia, quaemandaverat exequenda iuramento firmavit.

He, eager to carry it out, sends Arduinus, the bishop of Jovium, and Count Thomas to request the same. But the count, receiving them honorably, kept them with him, and, sending from his own company honorable and shrewd men to Pannonia, in their presence demands to have the execution of the matters requested confirmed by oath from the more powerful men of that region. To which the king, gladly assenting, through his duke, by name Alivus, and the rest of men of no lesser dignity, by oath confirmed all the things which had been mandated to be executed.

Sicque legatos comitis, ut pactum confirmatum renuncient, munificatos a se dimittit.

And thus he dismisses the count’s legates, munificently rewarded by him, so that they may report that the pact has been confirmed.

Comes autem, relatione suorum accepta, haud longe secus et ipsos legatos regis a se dimittens, pluribus honoribus ampliavit: regi terminum quo sibi filiam suam mittat, statuit.

However, the Count, a report from his own men received, not much otherwise, and dismissing the king’s legates from himself, amplified them with many honors: for the king he established a term by which he should send to him his own daughter.

Anno itaque Domini incarnationis MXCVII, apparatis quae necessaria erant, mense maio, cum trecentis militibus usque Thermas conducere facit, Henricum, Leocastrensem episcopum, et quosdam de fidelibus suis, abinde maritimo cursu cum puella usque ad Panormum praecedere faciens, ubi, navibus apparatis, puellam cum multis sponsalibus intromittentes, velis vento commissis, prospera aura flante, per aequora feruntur, usque dum in portum Albae, qui iuris regis Ungarorum est, impune applicant. Hic Vincurius, comes Bellegratae, missus cum quinque millibus armatorum, obvius fuit, eamque cum his, qui cum ipsa advenerant, decenter excipiens, usque ad regem perduxit.

Therefore, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1097, the things necessary having been prepared, in the month of May, with 300 soldiers he has an escort conducted as far as Thermas, causing Henry, bishop of Leocastrum, and certain of his faithful, from there by a maritime course to go on ahead with the girl as far as Panormus; where, the ships made ready, admitting the girl with many sponsals, the sails committed to the wind, with a favorable breeze blowing, they are borne over the level waters, until they make landfall unscathed in the port of Alba, which is under the right of the king of the Hungarians. Here Vincurius, count of Belgrade, sent with 5,000 armed men, met them, and, decently receiving her with those who had come with her, led her all the way to the king.

Per totam Pannoniam nuptiae regis praeconizantur. Undique cum exeniis concurritur. Et cum semper frequens et numerosa manus ex more cum rege fit, innumerabilem turbam plus solito rumor nuptiarum, et novae reginae videndae appetitus, conflavit.

Throughout all Pannonia the king’s nuptials are proclaimed. From everywhere they run together with exennia (gifts). And since a frequent and numerous band is always, by custom, in attendance with the king, the rumor of the nuptials, and the appetite to behold the new queen, kindled an innumerable crowd beyond the usual.

Die determinato, praesentibus archiepiscopis et episcopis et diversis ordinibus, dos puellae regali more in publico protestatur, rex et regina catholice pariter desponsantur, solemnesque nuptiae in tentoriis et ex virentibus ramis tabernaculis factis celebrantur. Nam nullae domus tantae multitudini sufficiebant. Nuptiis itaque regali more expletis, rex episcopum Leocastrensem, et qui cum ipso reversuri venerant, aliquantisper secum commorari faciens, ut videt de regressione festinos, regaliter munificatos a se dimisit.

On the appointed day, with archbishops and bishops and diverse orders present, the dowry of the girl is publicly proclaimed according to royal custom; the king and queen are catholically espoused together, and the solemn nuptials are celebrated in tents and in tabernacles made from green branches. For no houses were sufficient for so great a multitude. Therefore, the nuptials having been completed in royal fashion, the king, causing the bishop of Leocastrum and those who had come with him to return to tarry with him for a little while, when he sees them eager for their return, dismissed them, royally and munificently endowed with gifts by himself.

Illi ad portum venientes, maritimo cursu regredi accelerant.

They, coming to the port, hasten to return by a maritime course.

Iamque nostrae gentis fines appropinquantes, cum terram eminus cospiciunt, navicula, in qua episcopus erat, sociis armis carentibus, a duabus piratarum navibus, quas galeas appellant, hostiliter aggreditur. Nauclerus, qui navim regebat, iaculo confossus, occiditur; navis, remige carens, submersionem minatur. Episcopus, nullum refugium armorum habens, sed neque hostibus deditionem subire volens, Dei auxilium implorans, socios hortatur.

And now, as they were approaching the borders of our nation, when they catch sight of land from afar, the little ship in which the bishop was, his companions lacking arms, is attacked in hostile fashion by two pirate ships, which they call galleys. The shipmaster, who was steering the ship, pierced by a javelin, is killed; the ship, lacking a rower, threatens submersion. The bishop, having no refuge in arms, but not wishing to submit to surrender to the enemies, imploring the aid of God, exhorts his companions.

Ipse, idem faciens, inter alia subiungit: "Deus—inquit—si meis peccatis exigentibus minus mereor exaudiri, exaudi saltem per gratiam, quam erga progeniem Tancredi te habere multotiens ostentasti ! Hic enim interceptus sum pro servitio filii sui"! Nondum dixerat, et ecce, aura interveniente, navis, in qua erat, ab hostibus avulsa, securiores reddit, videntes navim abque remige directo cursu adiacentem insulam tanta velocitate per rapidas aequoris undas ferri, ut hostiles naves, velis et remis insequentibus, adversus illam velocitate praevalerent. Sicque directo cursu divinitus, ut credimus, regebatur, ut cum idem portus condensis syrtibus insitus arto et periculoso aditu, nisi a peritis nautis atterraretur, ad insulam pateat, impune scopulosas undas placido portu applicarent. Hostibus itaque frustratis recedentibus, ipsi prospero aequore, in quo disponebant, applicantes, ad comitem perveniunt, ordinem actionis suae exponentes.

He himself, doing the same, adds among other things: "God—he says—if by my sins, which demand it, I less deserve to be heard, hear at least by the grace which you have many times shown that you have toward the progeny of Tancred ! For here I have been intercepted for the service of his son"! He had not yet spoken, and behold, with a breeze intervening, the ship in which he was, torn away from the enemies, makes them more secure, as they see the ship, lacking a rower, by a direct course toward the adjacent island, being borne with such velocity through the swift waves of the sea’s surface that the hostile ships, though pursuing with sails and oars, did not prevail in speed against it. And thus, by a direct course, divinely—so we believe—it was steered, to such effect that, although that same port, set with dense syrtes, with a narrow and perilous approach, and, unless it were brought to land by skilled sailors, opens toward the island, they nonetheless touched safely, making the rocky surf yield to a tranquil harbor. The enemies therefore being frustrated and withdrawing, they themselves, making landfall on the favorable waters where they intended, reach the count, setting forth the order of their action.

Quis dubitet progeniem hanc divinitus quadam felicitate dotatam, cum in suis utilitatibus, ubi praesentes fuisse narrantur, tot felicibus successibus, fortuna etiam in suis fidelibus, ubi sua negotia exequebatur, defuisse passa non sit? Ad invocationem quippe gratiosae fortunae eorum navis haec erepta est ab impugnatione hostium.

Who would doubt that this progeny is divinely endowed with a certain felicity, since in their advantages—where they are reported to have been present—with so many felicitous successes, Fortune also, among their faithful, where she was carrying out her own business, has not permitted herself to be wanting? For at the invocation of their gracious Fortune, this ship was snatched from the assault of the enemies.

XXVI. Comes ergo, totius progeniei suae sustentator, citra Romam versus Siciliam, sicuti maria ab undique cingunt, abundantia rerum et industria callentis sapientis consilii praecellebat, unde et omnes sua negotia ad ipsum conferebant, ut sua prudentia, ut ferrum cote a comite resumpto, ad sua disponenda prudentius callerent et eius, ubi necesse foret, auxilio potirentur. Porro ipse omnes, quemadmodum gallina pullos suos sub alas, clypeo suae protectionis et consilii fovens, ut pius patronus re et consilio, prout poterat, omnibus omnino defavebat.

26. The Count therefore, sustainer of his whole progeny, on this side of Rome toward Sicily—just as the seas gird it on every side—excelled by abundance of resources and by the industry of a seasoned, wise counsel; whence also all brought their affairs to him, so that by his prudence—like iron by a whetstone, the stone taken up from the Count—they might become more practiced for arranging their own matters, and might obtain his aid wherever it should be necessary. Moreover, he, fostering all just as a hen her chicks beneath her wings, with the shield of his protection and counsel, as a pious patron in deed and in counsel, so far as he was able, showed favor to all without exception.

Unde accidit ut Ricardus iuvenis, Iordani principis filius, princeps et ipse Aversae, defuncto patre, orbus, pusillus superstes, fraude Longobardorum urbe Capuana iniuste iamdudum privatus, cum iam ad intelligibilem aetatem pervenisset, damnum sibi illatum videns et dolens, ac de auctoribus ultionem petere disponens, ad sibi consanguineum comitem prudentes viros supplex illorsum exhortatum mittit, ut sibi auxilium laturus accelerare non differat cum servitio suo, vice recompensationis Neapolim, quae sibi similiter recalcitrabat, si praevalere posset, fiducialiter concedens. Dux igitur, ut qui parti consanguinei principis favebat, non viliori legato, quam laterali coniuge Adala, videlicet marchionis Flandrensis filia, ut cum exercitu venire non differat ac sibimet auxilium laturus summopere invitat. Princeps enim, causa auxilii, quod ab ipso sperabat, homo ducis factus fuerat: quod nunquam Guiscardus, cum multarum artium et virium esset, a Iordano principe—quamvis hic avunculus, ille autem nepos: sororis videlicet filius esset—vel vi, vel blandimentis extorquere potuit, cum saepissime attentatus fuerit.

Whence it happened that Richard the youth, son of Prince Jordan, himself prince of Aversa, his father having died, orphaned, a small survivor, having long ago been unjustly deprived of the city of Capua by the fraud of the Longobards, when he had now come to an intelligible age, seeing and grieving the damage brought upon himself, and resolving to seek vengeance upon the authors, sent to his kinsman the count prudent men as suppliants thither to exhort him, that he not delay to hasten to bring aid to him with his service, confidently granting, by way of recompense, Naples—which similarly was kicking back against him—if he should be able to prevail. The Duke, therefore, as one who favored the party of his kinsman the prince, with no meaner envoy than his side-consort Adala, namely the daughter of the marquis of Flanders, urgently invites him not to delay to come with an army and to bring aid to himself. For the prince, for the sake of the aid which he hoped from him, had become the duke’s man; which Guiscard never could extort from Prince Jordan—although this one was the uncle, that one however the nephew, namely the sister’s son—either by force or by blandishments, though he had very often attempted it.

Comes autem, pietate consanguinei principis et multis verbis ducissae, sibi a duce delegatae, legatione et deprecatione humiliter exponentis illectus et persuasus, exercitu—qualem numquam ante hunc habuisse dignoscitur—ab omni Sicilia et Calabria forti imperio conflato, prima hebdomada aprilis, secunda Paschae, Pharum transiens, illorsum accelerat. Sed in prato Marco aliquantisper commoratus, exercitum, maris transmeatione et arto scopulosorum montium transitu tardantem, dum veniat, sustinet, videns super iuga montium Calabriae greges armentorum et pecorum, sed et caprarum, in usus Saracenorum, quorum maxima pars exercitui intererat, occupari, ut merito, a collatione similis argumenti, gregum Laban et Iacob, si legisses, vel certe, aliquo referente, didicisses, recordari potuisses. Congregato exercitu, quis armatorum millia numerare potuisset, cum ipsa tentoria, bitumine palliata, vis ullo numero concludi potuerunt?

However, the Count, allured and persuaded by the piety of the consanguineal prince and by the many words of the duchess, delegated to him by the duke, humbly setting forth her legation and deprecation, with an army—such as he is known never before this to have had—fused together from all Sicily and Calabria by strong command, in the first week of April, on the second of Easter, crossing the Pharos, hastens thither. But having tarried for a little in the meadow of Marco, he waits until the army—delayed by the crossing of the sea and the narrow passage of rocky mountains—may come; seeing upon the ridges of the mountains of Calabria herds of cattle and of sheep, and also of goats, being seized for the use of the Saracens, a very great part of whom was among the army, so that, by a comparison of a like case, you might rightly have been able to recall the flocks of Laban and Jacob, if you had read, or at least, with someone relating it, had learned. The army having been assembled, who could have counted the thousands of the armed men, when even the very tents, mantled with bitumen, could by no number have their mass encompassed?

Tam pomposo plus solito exercitu comes apulos fines visum intendit, maxime quia Apuli, expeditionibus aliquo annorum curriculo desueti, corpus multis plagis et diutinis laboribus fatigando, quin recreando, sibi potius indulgere, quam expeditionibus iterum assuescendo, insudare nitebantur. Unde et ipsum ducem, quasi principis praesentialiter auxilio destitutum, minus verebantur, sed per loca adversus eum insurgendo, in insolentiam prorumpentes, eius iussa minus exequebantur. Dux quoque simili argumento de eius versus Apuliam expeditionaliter adventu minus credulus, animo enim cupienti nihil satis festinatur, ut seipsum submovendo extrahat, versus Calabriam accelerat.

With so pompous an army, more than usual, the count directed his sight toward the Apulian bounds, especially because the Apulians, unaccustomed to expeditions for some course of years, were striving rather to indulge themselves by refreshing the body, than, by wearing it with many blows and long labors, to sweat by becoming habituated again to expeditions. Whence they also feared the duke himself less, as if deprived of the prince’s present aid; but, rising up against him through the districts, breaking out into insolence, they executed his commands the less. The duke also, by a similar argument, was less credulous about his expeditionary coming toward Apulia; for to a desiring mind nothing is hastened enough; so, withdrawing himself to extricate himself, he hastens toward Calabria.

Versus Apuliam proficiscenti apud Liscum, iuxta castrum Orioli, occurrit, multumque ad invicem laetati, dux quidem versus Melfam exercitum submovendo accelerat, comes autem, ne greges sui deficerent, iter conficiens, Beneventum venit. Ibique in planicie, super ripam fluminis Caloris, ad pontem sancti Valentini castrametatus est. Beneventani autem, eius adventum pertimescentes, pacem expostulantes, iam triduo occurrunt.

As he was setting out toward Apulia, at Liscum, near the castle of Oriolus, he met him, and, much rejoicing with one another, the duke indeed hastens, by drawing off the army, toward Melfa; but the count, lest his flocks should fail, completing the march, came to Beneventum. And there on the plain, upon the bank of the river Calor, at the bridge of Saint Valentine, he encamped. But the Beneventans, thoroughly fearing his advent, demanding peace, come to meet him already on the third day.

Comes autem, sciens urbem iuri apostolici Urbani et sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae competere, susceptis mille quingentis aureis et sex ambulatoriis, urbi et messibus suis parcendum indicit; indeque pertransiens, super fluvium, quod Sabbatum dicitur, tentoria figens, Pentecosten celebravit.

The count, however, knowing that the city pertains to the apostolic right of Urban and of the Holy Roman Church, upon receiving 1,500 gold pieces and six palfreys, proclaims that the city and its harvests are to be spared; and from there, passing through, pitching his tents on the river which is called the Sabbatum, he celebrated Pentecost.

Ipse quidem legatos iam pridem Capuanis honestos viros praemiserat, submonens hortando ut ab inepto incoepto desisterent: se illis nil mali inferre velle, sed potius, si cum principe suo ius exequi velint, eorum parti cum iustitia sustentamento esse. At ubi, legatis regredientibus, eos nil moliri, sed potius in malitia sua superbe persistere audit, inde commovens, Capuanos fines pervadit, quo diluculo cum mille armatis—exercitum praecedens—ad urbem accedit; extractos plurimos militariter deiectos damnose ludificavit; multosque amplius laesisset, nisi pulvis equorum, pedibus excitatus et a vento condensissime agitatus, intercessisset. Sic ad castra sua reversus, in crastinum cum toto exercitu suo urbem viciniorem conferens, a meridiana plaga obsidione vallando, a ripa orientali usque in occidentalem cingit dux autem et princeps cum suo exercitu, ab aquilonari parte obsidentes, urbem intendunt praegravari.

He indeed had already some time before sent ahead to the Capuans honorable men as legates, admonishing by exhortation that they desist from the inept inception: that he wished to bring on them nothing evil, but rather, if they were willing to execute the right with their prince, to be, with justice, a support to their party. But when, the legates returning, he hears that they are attempting nothing, but rather are proudly persisting in their malice, moving from there he penetrates the Capuan borders, and at dawn, with a thousand armed men—preceding the army—he approaches the city; having dragged very many out and cast down in military fashion, he ruinously made sport of them; and he would have injured many more, had not the dust of the horses, stirred up by their feet and driven most densely by the wind, intervened. Thus, returned to his camp, on the morrow, bringing his whole army nearer to the city, by walling it round with a siege from the southern quarter, he girds it from the eastern bank to the western; but the duke and the prince, with their army, besieging from the northern part, aim that the city be weighed down.

Porro comes, cuius consilio omnes incedebant, quia sollicitior et prudentior in omnibus agendis vigilanti cura erat, pontem ex lignis erigens, ita transflumen ordinavit ut suo exercitui et duci, libero aditu patente, fieret transitus.

Moreover the count, at whose counsel all were advancing, because with wakeful care he was more solicitous and more prudent in all undertakings, erecting a bridge of timbers, arranged the crossing across the river in such a way that, with a free approach lying open, passage might be made for his army and for the duke.

Sicque urbs ab utroque exercitu in tantum oppressa est, ut nulla ex parte arida vel liquida, egrediendi tuto vel ingrediendiaditus pateret. Ipse autem, omni diluculo ante lucem surgens, utrumque exercitum, pontem transeundo, videns utrum attenti essent, ad excubias visum ibat, ducem et principem, adhuc somno oppressos inveniens, ludibrio habebat. Porro ipsi rubore perfundebantur, quod iuvenes ipsi, ad quos peculiarius negotium attinebat, segniores forent, comite provectioris aetatis et corporis plagarum laborumque asperitatis viro vigilantiore existente.

And thus the city was so oppressed by both armies that on no side, by land or by water, did a safe way out or an approach for entering lie open. He himself, moreover, at every dawn rising before light, crossing the bridge and observing both armies to see whether they were attentive, went to view the watches; and finding the duke and the prince still oppressed by sleep, he held them to mockery. Furthermore, they themselves were suffused with blush, because the youths themselves, upon whom the business more particularly devolved, were the more sluggish, the count—older in years and a man seasoned by the body’s blows and the asperity of labors—proving the more vigilant.

Nam et ab omni exercitu eius vigilantia admirationi erat, omnesque eius exemplo vigilantiores reddebantur, anno Dominicae incarnationis MXCVIII.

For also his vigilance was a matter of admiration to the whole army, and all were rendered more vigilant by his example, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1098.

Ibi se impregnavit comitissa Adelasia de comite Rogerio.

There Countess Adelasia conceived by Count Roger.

XXVII. Cum ista aguntur, papa Urbanus, colloquium ducis et comitis desiderans, a Roma progreditur et apud Capuam, ubi in obsessione manebant, venit; comesque, sex tentoria illi deliberans ad hospitandum, sumptus necessarios abundantissime ministravit. Porro ipse, sciens scriptum: Beati pedes evangelizantium pacem; et Beati pacifici, quoniam ipsi filii Dei vocabuntur; et alibi scriptum est: Pacem habete, et Deus pacis et dilectionis erit vobiscum; et maxime quia sciebat se totius Christianitatis curam suae provisioni delegatam, de pace inter ipsos reformanda primo ducem et comitem, principemque pariter conveniens, attentare coepit.

27. While these things are being transacted, Pope Urban, desiring a colloquy of the duke and the count, sets forth from Rome and comes to Capua, where they were remaining under siege; and the count, assigning to him six tents for lodging, furnished the necessary expenses most abundantly. Moreover, he himself, knowing it is written: Blessed are the feet of those evangelizing peace; and Blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called the sons of God; and elsewhere it is written: Have peace, and the God of peace and of love will be with you; and especially because he knew that the care of all Christendom had been delegated to his provision, concerning the peace to be restored between them, first meeting with the duke and the count, and likewise with the prince, he began to attempt it.

Qui, consilio comitis, prudenti responsione usi, in praesentia apostolici, qui sane vice beati Petri dicunt se ius inire, si a Capuanis pari discrimine idem exequebatur, concedunt.

Who, by the counsel of the count, employing a prudent response, in the presence of the Apostolic—who indeed, in the stead (vice) of blessed Peter, say that they enter upon jurisdiction—concede to go to law, if by the Capuans the same were executed with equal peril.

Papa infra urbem idem de Capuanis rescitum vadens, dum ab utrisque partibus conceditur, spe conficiendae pacis frustra gaudens, renuntiat. Dies disputandi statuitur. His opponentibus et illis, prout sese res habebat, respondentibus, gravi sillogismo Capuanis a iudicibus legaliter conclusio determinatur.

The pope, going within the city to learn the same concerning the Capuans, while it is conceded by both parties, rejoicing in the hope of bringing about peace, though in vain, reports back. A day for disputation is appointed. With these opposing and those, as the matter stood, responding, by a grave syllogism the conclusion is legally determined against the Capuans by the judges.

Capuani, audientes se iudicio praegravari, vel oppositione vel rationabili contradictione contra iudices usi, publice se iniuriosos ostentantes, exequi vel nolle vel non posse denuntiant. Quod audiens vir apostolicus et, quia haec ab illis exequenda interrupta fuerant, aliquantulum erubescens, gladio beati Petri animadvertens interminatur, parti nostrorum ex toto favendo se contulit, constantiam comitis in iustitiam exequendam perplurimum laudans, vitamque eius omni cura Romae et Italiae pernecessariam asserens. Nam timor eius plures ab insolentia, plusquam zelus honestatis, compescebat.

The Capuans, hearing themselves overborne by the judgment, making use either of opposition or of reasonable contradiction against the judges, publicly showing themselves injurious, declare that they either are unwilling or not able to execute. Hearing this, the apostolic man, and somewhat blushing because these things to be executed by them had been interrupted, threatens, taking punitive notice with the sword of blessed Peter; devoting himself to favor entirely our party, he very greatly praises the constancy of the count in executing justice, and asserts that his life is in every concern most necessary for Rome and Italy. For fear of him kept more people from insolence than zeal for honor did.

Apostolicus itaque ecclesiasticis negotiis, plusquam expeditionalibus exercitiis intentus, tot talibusque tumultibus mente declinatis, his tribus principibus, sed et omni exercitui apostolica benedictione concessa, Beneventum secessit.

The Apostolic, therefore, intent on ecclesiastical affairs more than on expeditionary exercises, with so many and such tumults turned aside in his mind, having granted apostolic blessing to these three princes, and indeed to the whole army as well, withdrew to Beneventum.

XXVIII. Comes autem cum duce et principe in oppugnatione urbis attentissime persistentes, machinamenta ad urbem capiendam artificiosissime aptant. Capuani primo ludibrio habere, contemnendo ad defensionem sese ad invicem cohortari, duci tamen, vel comiti se, si retinendo recipere velint, urbem reddere attentant.

28. The count, however, together with the duke and the prince, persisting most attentively in the oppugnation of the city, most artfully fit engines for taking the city. The Capuans at first hold them to mockery, and by contemning exhort one another to defense; yet they attempt to render the city to the duke, or to the count, if they might be received while retaining what they hold.

Sed nobilissimi principes, hanc fraudem sibi nullatenus assumere volentes nisi ut principi reddantur, acquiescere passi non sunt.

But the most noble princes, in no wise willing to take this fraud upon themselves unless they be restored to the Prince, did not permit acquiescence.

At, ubi Capuani machinamenta apparata versus urbem appropiare vident, quae prius ludibrio habebant, exhorrescentes, deditione urbis sese, consilio comitis, committunt. Sicque ipso mediatore usi, vix suae fraudis impunitas impetratur. Principi pro libitu suo urbs Capuana restituitur.

But, when the Capuans see the prepared machines drawing near toward the city, which previously they had held in mockery, shuddering, they commit themselves, by the counsel of the count, to the surrender of the city. And thus, using him himself as mediator, scarcely is impunity for their fraud obtained. The city of Capua is restored to the prince, at his pleasure.

A principe duci et comiti gratiae referunt. Dux et comes apud Salernum pariter digrediuntur. Princeps pro suo libitu urbem vindicans, in altiori turri triumphaliter hospitatur.

They render thanks to the prince, the duke, and the count. The duke and the count at Salerno together part company. The prince, vindicating the city at his pleasure, is triumphally lodged in the higher tower.

XXIX. Papa, urbem redditam et pacem inter ipsos factam audiens, gaudet et de fraude compressa et de pace confecta. Sed quia ducem et comitem Salernum secessisse audivit, nolens comitem, donec sibi loquatur, versus Siciliam remeare, illorsum accelerat.

29. The Pope, hearing that the city had been restored and that peace had been made between them, rejoices both at the fraud compressed and at the peace concluded. But because he heard that the duke and the count had withdrawn to Salerno, not wishing the count to return toward Sicily until he should speak with him, he hastens thither.

Veniensque cum archiepiscopis apud sanctum Mattheum, ut cum debito honore eum acciperet, cum processione praestolatur; et tamen, propter amicabilem venerationem, quam versus comitem habebat, primum ad eius hospitium eum amabiliter visum vadit, diuque eius colloquio usus, ad processionem, quae praestolabatur, suscipiendus accessit.

And coming with the archbishops at Saint Matthew, in order that he might receive him with due honor, he waits with a procession; and yet, on account of the amicable veneration which he had toward the count, he first goes to his lodging to see him amiably, and, having long enjoyed his conversation, he approached the procession, which was waiting, to be received.

In crastinumque convenientes, alter alterius colloquio cum maxima delectatione fruuntur. Sed, quia ipse apostolicus iamdudum Robertum, episcopum Traynensem, comite inconsulto, legatum in Sicilia ad exequendum ius sanctae Romanae Ecclesise posuerat, perpendens hoc comitem grave ferre, et nullo modo, ut stabile permaneat, assentire cognoscens, etiam ipsum comitem, in omnibus negotiis ecclesiasticis exequendis zelo divini ardoris effervescentem, cassato quod de episcopo Traynensi fecerat, legationem beati Petri super comitem per totam Siciliam et sui iuris Calabriam, habitam vel habendam, haereditaliter ponit: ea discretione ut, dum ipse comes advixerit, vel aliquis haeredum suorum zeli paterni ecclesiastici executor superstes fuerit, legatus alius a Romana Sede, ipsis invitis, minime superponatur; sed si qua Romanae Ecclesiae iuris exequenda fuerint, chartulis a Romana Sede in Siciliam vel Calabriam directis, per ipsos consilio episcoporum earumdem provinciarum authentice definiantur. Quod si episcopi ad concilium invitati fuerint, quot et quos ipsi comiti vel suis futuris haeredibus visum fuerit, illuc illis dirigant, nisi forte de aliquo ipsorum in concilio agendum sit, in Sicilia vel Calabria in praesentia sua authentice definiri nequiverit. Et ad hoc inconvulsum perpetualiter permanendum privilegio suae auctoritatis firmavit, cuius sententiam hic subtitulamus:

And on the morrow coming together, each enjoyed the other’s colloquy with very great delectation. But, because the Apostolic himself had some time before, without the count’s being consulted, appointed Robert, bishop of Traina, as legate in Sicily for the executing of the right of the Holy Roman Church, weighing that the count bore this gravely, and knowing that he by no means assented that it should remain stable, and that the count himself, in executing all ecclesiastical negotiations, was effervescing with zeal of divine ardor, annulling what he had done concerning the bishop of Traina, he places hereditarily upon the count the legation of blessed Peter through all Sicily and Calabria of his own jurisdiction, held or to be held: with this discretion, that, while the count himself shall have lived, or any of his heirs, an executor of his paternal ecclesiastical zeal, shall have survived, no other legate from the Roman See be set over them against their will; but if any matters of the right of the Roman Church are to be executed, by writs sent from the Roman See into Sicily or Calabria, let them be authentically defined through them with the counsel of the bishops of those same provinces. And if the bishops shall have been invited to a council, as many and which ones as shall have seemed good to the count himself or to his future heirs, let them send thither, unless perchance it should be necessary to deal in council about any one of them, which could not be authentically defined in Sicily or Calabria in their presence. And for this to remain perpetually unshaken he fortified it by a privilege of his authority, the tenor of which we sub-title here beneath:

URBANUS Episcopus, sersus servorum Dei, carissimo filio Rogerio, comiti Calabriae et Siciliae, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Quia propter prudentiam tuam, Supernae Maiestatis dignatio te multis triumphis et honoribus exaltavit, et probitas tua in Saracenorum finibus Ecclesiam Dei plurimum dilatavit, sanctaeque Sedi Apostolicae devotam se multis modis semper exhibuit, nos in specialem atque carissimum filium eiusdem universalis matris Ecclesiae assumpsimus, idcirco de tuae probitatis sinceritate plurimum confidentes, sicut verbis promisimus, litterarum ita auctoritate firmamus: quod omni vitae tuae tempore, vel filii tui Simonis, aut alterius qui legitimus tui haeres extiterit, nullum in terra potestatis vestrae, praeter voluntatem aut consilium vestrum, legatum Romanae Ecclesiae statuemus; quinimmo, quae per legatum acturi sumus, per vestram industriam legati vice cohiberi volumus, quando ad vos ex latere nostro misserimus, ad salutem videlicet Ecclesiarum, quae sub vestra potestate existant, ad honorem beati Petri; sanctaeque eius Sedis Apostolicae, cui devote hactenus obedisti; quamque in opportunitatibus suis strenue ac fideliter adiuvisti. Si vero celebrabitur concilium, tibi mandavero quatenus episcopos et abbates tuae terrae mihi mittans, quot et quos volueris, alios ad servitium ecclesiarum et tutelam retineas.

URBAN, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his dearest son Roger, count of Calabria and Sicily, greeting and apostolic benediction. Because, on account of your prudence, the condescension of the Supernal Majesty has exalted you with many triumphs and honors, and your probity has very greatly dilated the Church of God in the borders of the Saracens, and has always in many ways shown itself devoted to the holy Apostolic See, we have taken you up as a special and most dear son of that same universal mother Church; therefore, greatly confident in the sincerity of your probity, just as we promised in words, so by the authority of letters we confirm this: that for the whole time of your life, or of your son Simon, or of another who shall have stood forth as your legitimate heir, we will appoint no legate of the Roman Church in the land of your power, apart from your will or counsel; nay rather, the things we are going to transact through a legate, we wish to be exercised by your industry in the stead of a legate, whenever we shall have sent to you from our side, namely for the salvation of the Churches which exist under your power, for the honor of blessed Peter and of his holy Apostolic See, to which you have hitherto devoutly obeyed, and which you have strenuously and faithfully aided in its occasions. But if a council shall be celebrated, I will mandate to you that, sending to me the bishops and abbots of your land, as many and whom you will, you retain the others for the service and tutelage of the churches.

Omnipotens Dominus actus tuos in beneplacitu suo dirigat, et te, a peccatis absolutum, ad vitam aeternam perducat. Datum Salerni per manum Iohannis, sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Diaconi Cardinalis, tertio nonas Iulii; indictione septima, anno Pontificatus nostri undecimo.

May the Almighty Lord direct your deeds in his good pleasure, and lead you, absolved from sins, to eternal life. Given at Salerno by the hand of John, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, on the third day before the Nones of July; in the seventh indiction, in the eleventh year of our Pontificate.