Chapter 1: The Five Brothers of Sicily
The Brothers
Upon the death of Roger II in February 24, 1154, he was survived by five sons, four legitimate, and one illegitimate.
Eldest was the 36 year old
Duke Roger of Apulia, who distinguished himself at the
Battle of Rigano in 1137, where he stood bravely in a fight that his father had fled. He was his father’s official heir, and was the obvious choice for next king. He was married to
Isabella of Champagne, but like his father, had many mistresses, the most prominent of which was Emma, daughter of the Sicilian Count of Lecce. Emma gave him two illegitimate sons,
Tancred[1] and William. Tancred was his father’s favorite, and had inherited the title of Count of Lecce. Duke Roger was known for bravery and skill in military affairs, but with little interest in culture. Roger had no legitimate children by the time of his father’s death.Second was the 35 year old
Prince Tancred of Bari, who was known for his sympathy towards his Greek subjects. [2] Tancred of Bari was the intellectual of the brothers, constantly fascinated by science and the arts. In his father’s later years, the Prince of Bari would act as a patron for travelers and monks to make use of their learning. Tancred was unmarried at the time of his father’s passing.
Third was the 34 year old
Alfonso, Prince of Capua and later Duke of Naples. Alfonso was a man devoted to two things; war and administration[3]. He had been made Prince of Capua while still in his minority, and his regents had impressed upon him the importance of ruling effectively, especially in his principality, with its notoriously independent-minded lords. In his father’s later years, Alfonso reorganized his principality and duchy into more centralized domains with royal permission, and squeezed much wealth out of it. In the 1140s, Alfonso fought against
Pope Lucius II, who demanded the restitution of Capua as a papal fief. In response, Alfonso plundered and seized papal land, before being forced to give back his conquests by a treaty between his father and Pope Lucius. The year before his father’s death Alfonso was married to Sophia of Hungary, daughter of the late
King Bela II of Hungary.[4]
Fourth was the 23 year old
William, Count of Malta[5] and least favorite of his father’s sons. The chronicler
Hugo Falcandus[6] described William as politically lethargic, more concerned with pleasure than with governance. However, William had positive traits as well; a fierce protective instinct towards his Muslim Maltese subjects, an eye for talent, and a towering Norman physicality. William was described as being six feet tall, with a great blond beard and the proverbial strength to bend an iron horseshoe with his bare hands. William was married to Margaret of Navarre, daughter of King Garcia Rameriz of Navarre, and by the time of his father’s death, William had a son named Roger. William disliked his older brothers, especially the illegitimate Simon, who he felt had too much power for a bastard.
Fifth was the 28 year old[7]
Simon, Prince of Taranto. One of Roger II’s large brood of illegitimate children, the king favored Simon above even his legitimate son William, granting him Taranto, though the city was an important fief. Simon had an air of recklessness and energy around him, and probably participated in his father’s raids on Greece in his later years.
Together, these brothers formed the ruling class of the Sicilian nobility, with all other Norman nobles beneath them in authority. The
Assizes of Ariano ensured their supreme legal authority over the various counts and barons, and indeed, Arab and Greek magistrates appointed by Roger gave the burgeoning Sicilian royal bureaucracy administrative power over the nobles, a state of affairs the proud Normans hated.
Coronation and Invasion
Days after Roger II’s death, his eldest son was enthroned as
Roger III, King of Sicily and Duke of Apulia. Likewise, his brothers Tancred, Alfonso, William, and Simon were confirmed in their previous titles. All seemed at peace… for a fortnight.
In the summer, news came from Germany in the north; the
German King Frederick of Hohenstaufen had come with a massive army to gain an Imperial crown, and to crush the Sicilians in the name of the pope. What was worse, Sicilian spies had discovered a potential alliance between Frederick and the
Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Roger knew he could only fight one enemy at a time and so bribed the
Cuman nomads in the Balkans to raid Greece, distracting the Byzantines temporarily.
Even with the Greek threat delayed, the Sicilian barons rose up in revolt, seeing a chance to exchange an over-powerful local ruler with a distant, lenient German monarch. Prince Simon was thrown out of Taranto, and fled to Palermo on Sicily proper, and Prince Alfonso and Prince Tancred were besieged in Capua and Bari respectively. Roger began to mobilize his soldiers from Sicily and Malta, but most of his cavalry had gone over to the rebels. Yet another bad omen arrived when the fiercely anti-Sicilian Nicholas Breakspear, an English cardinal, was elected
Pope Adrian IV, the first English Pope. He immediately called for the overthrow of Roger III.
Meanwhile, throughout the fall and winter of 1154-1155, King Frederick had slowly advanced down the Alps, obtaining first the submission of Milan, the destruction of the rebellious town of
Tortona, and the plunder of various other Italian cities, his distinctive red beard earning him the Italian nickname of
Barbarossa, or “Redbeard”. He obtained the Iron Crown of Lombardy at Pavia, then met Pope Adrian IV outside the gates of Rome, as the new Bishop of Rome had been thrust out of the city by his own citizens.
The election of a new Pope had not sit well with the Romans, who had reclaimed more of their old republican identity for decades. The idea of a religious authority holding so much wealth and secular power was gradually seen as unpalatable and even sickening to the civic-minded Romans. They had enough of papal politics, and had thrown out Adrian and the papal government, forming a
Commune of Rome under the loose leadership of
Arnold of Brescia, a heretic monk.
As the army approached Rome, an ambassador from the Commune came out of the city, demanding “tribute”, and denouncing the concept of kings. The ambassador began a lengthy speech promoting the glories of Rome, to which Barbarossa interrupted by saying “The glories of Rome are behind it. I come not to honor Rome, but take that which is mine”[8], before dismissing the ambassador.
The German-Papal army entered Rome, and Barbarossa was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, but not without incident. The Romans felt insulted by the occupation of their city and enthronement of an Emperor, and rioted in the streets. The new Emperor’s army spent three days crushing the revolt brutally, and the residential areas of Rome were set aflame and gutted by imperial plunderers. Arnold of Brescia was hung for rebellion, and the Commune was suppressed completely.
The chronicler Hugo Falcundus states that as news came to Palermo of this chaos in Rome, the Sicilian king was said to have gleefully stated
“I could place a Mohammaden on Saint Peter’s throne, and he would cause less destruction than the English Pope and his pet German”. Such a comment is probably apocryphal, but displays the utter disdain Roger III had for the throne of St. Peter, which had waged war on the Normans in Sicily at least three times in Roger’s lifetime.
With the Imperial army distracted, Roger divided his army in two, and sent one toward rebel-held Taranto, retaking the city with a short siege and a bribe. Prince Simon was re-installed with a small force of mixed Italian and Arab Sicilian soldiers, ensuring he would have a loyal force against the Norman aristocracy.
The other half of the army went to Prince Tancred, who was besieged in Bari. Tancred had been able to last longer than his brothers in his ducal capital due to his preference for Greek bureaucrats and advisors. The citizens of Bari had been fiercely independent since the days of Robert Guiscard, and the extensive preparations of Tancred’s chief advisor Maio[9] allowed Bari to hold out nearly indefinitely against the rebels. Roger’s forces caught the rebel counts by surprise, and Tancred joined King Roger with his small Greek army, Roger promising that the Bariots would be given better fortifications and a “treasured place” in his court.
Meanwhile, the Sicilian’s successful sieges roused Barbarossa and Pope Adrian from Rome, and the massive Imperial army slowly advanced southwards, complaining of the summer heat and malaria, the emperor himself grumbling that “the Sicilians had the greatest general of all; Duke Summer[10]”. The emperor’s nickname for the Sicilian weather soon trickled down to his soldiers, who themselves complained to their Sicilian rebel allies. The loyalists soon heard of the nickname, and sardonically toasted “Duke Summer”, a moniker that remains to this day. With the summer heat as an ally, Roger III imitated the tactics of his father; avoiding the larger army of Barbarossa while letting the fractious nature of the German feudal system and the weather do his work for him.
Sure enough, by late August, the German vassals had demanded that they be released, and Sicilian gold found its way into the treasuries of the restive lords who had remained in Germany, and Barbarossa was forced to lead his army northward like his predecessor Lothair had. The emperor paused to siege and burn
Spoleto to the ground for rebelling against him, but otherwise made temporary peace with the Sicilians. Pope Adrian IV, bereft of a powerful German monarch to aid him, also made peace with the Sicilians, but demanded that the Sicilians show their contrition for fighting against the anointed Holy Roman Emperor and the throne of St. Peter by rebuilding any churches that might have been destroyed in the fighting. Roger III understood this to be a face-saving measure for the Pope, and not only rebuilt several churches, but proceeded to found monasteries across Southern Italy, in a show of wealth and power.
Also in the summer, Roger III sent gifts to
Geza II, King of Hungary, asking for the gift of a small force of Croat warriors, explaining in a letter that “Croats would be a worthy surprise to any man who thinks himself learned in the armies of Sicily”. King Geza, who was Roger III's brother-in-law, sent a force of a few hundred Croats chosen for their ferocity in battle.
However, there was one final attempt at toppling the new King of Sicily. In the autumn months of 1155, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel, who had been delayed in his invasion of Sicily by plundering Cumans in the Balkans (paid by Sicilian gold), attempted to outdo his rival emperor and the Pope.
Manuel sent ten warships filled with eight thousand Greek, Bulgarian, and Turcopole soldiers, and a hefty bribe of gold to the remaining aristocratic rebels. The army was led by the brilliant
Michael Palaiologos, being joined by the rebel
Count Robert of Loritello, and
Andronikos Komnenos[11], cousin to Emperor Manuel.
The first city that Michael faced was the mighty fortress of Bari, which as noted previously, had a strong Greek Orthodox character, and was traditionally wary of the Italo-Normans. However, any hopes Michael had of a quick invasion were dashed by the Bariots closing the gates of their fortress to him, in loyalty to their “half-Greek” prince Tancred. The frustrated general set a third of his forces to siege Bari, and joined the rest of his army to the rebel Normans, meeting Roger III in battle outside the town of Brindisi in late November, 1155.
The Battle of Brindisi
The chronicler Hugo Falcundus is the main source for the Battle of Brindisi, and he spends more time detailing (or defaming) the personalities involved rather than describing the battle. According to Hugo, the two opposing armies lined up on a field outside of Brindisi, the Byzantine-rebel army being composed of the Greeks, Bulgarians, and Turcopoles of the Byzantines, and the heavily cavalry force of Robert of Loritello. The Bulgarians were led by the brave Andronikos Komnenos. On the other side, Roger III commanded a small cavalry center, diminished by the rebels holding most of the horses and horsemen in the kingdom. Augmenting Roger was a core of Lombard infantry commanded by Prince Alfonso of Capua (the siege of Capua had faded quietly away), and Muslim archers under Prince William of Malta. A final mixed force of Greek Bariots recruited from towns nearby Bari and Roger’s newly acquired Croats were commanded by Prince Tancred, whose city had been twice put under siege in two years.
The two armies began by advancing towards each other, the impetuous Roger III charging his cavalry at the front lines of Michael Palaiologo’s army, with the Muslim archers of Prince William firing at the Byzantine Turcopoles to prevent them from firing at the core of Lombard infantry.
The sheer force of the cavalry charge surprised Palaiologos, but he sent his Bulgarians forward, some of which had served alongside (or against) the Varangian Guard. The Bulgarians hacked their way through much of Roger’s remaining cavalry. Roger was forced to withdraw, but Falcundus records that he “withdrew into the Turcopoles”, bloodying their ranks as well, before “properly” disengaging from the fight.
At the same time, the Capuan Lombards under Prince Alfonso were taking heavy losses by an assault from the rebel cavalry, Prince Alfonso himself losing an arm in the melee.
It was then, Falcundus writes, that Roger gave a mighty roar, declaring that as God for a witness, he would not fall to craven rebels and arrogant Greeks. He commanded the Croats and loyalist Greeks of Prince Tancred forward, which crashed into the rebel cavalry, sending them running. The chronicler claimed that the “cowardly” Count Robert fled at the first sign of true danger, and left his horsemen to die, and it is true that Count Robert was one of the few rebel aristocrats that survived the battle and its aftermath.
The defeat of the Norman cavalry proved to be a turning point, and the previously successful Bulgarians fled as well after a short melee against the Croat warriors, who “hacked each man in pieces from head to toe”. Their commander Andronikos “fought like a lion”, but did not survive, his personal effects hacked from his body and claimed by victorious Croats. The Turcopoles had remained mostly unharmed, but had been unable to outfire the mass of Muslim archers under Prince William, and so fled as well. The last remaining troops of the Byzantine-rebel army were Michael Palaiologo’s core of Greek and rebel Norman infantry, and the similarly battered Sicilian army finally fell upon this last core of resistance and shattered it, capturing Michael Palaiologos and some of his more distinguished lieutenants, but slaying most of the rebels with a vengeance. With that, the Battle of Brindisi was over.
Aftermath
With the utter defeat of the rebels and the Byzantine invasion, there was only the sweeping up of the remnants of the enemy forces (mostly at Bari, where the siege had continued after the defeat at Brindisi), and of course, ransoms. This Roger did happily, ransoming Michael Palaiologos and his lieutenants for a massive amount of wealth. Falcundus writes that Roger immediately wrote to Geza a few weeks after the battle, asking for more Croats and explaining that it was due to their efforts that he recently came into possession of a vast amount of gold. For it was the Croats who had allowed Roger to keep his crown, and enjoy a moment of peace from Sicily’s many enemies.
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[1] OTL Tancred of Lecce/Tancred of Sicily, who would be the last Norman King of Sicily. Obviously, he’s not going to have that sad fate here. Though he will feature elsewhere in the TL...
[2] I have no idea if he actually felt this way, but I figured that I should give personality traits for each son of Roger II, since their Wiki pages (or my actual source, John Julius Norwich’s excellent books on Sicily), don’t exactly reveal much. So Tancred of Bari gets to be an intellectual who loves Greek culture.
[3] Alfonso of Capua has a much more substantive Wiki page than Tancred does, and it mentions that he fought in battle several times, and was well-versed in administration. So he sticks with those traits.
[4] Real daughter of Bela II of Hunary, fake marriage to Alfonso of Capua.
[5] OTL William was not Count of Malta; he seems to have been considered the least favorite son, and even after the death of all of his brothers, his father did not prepare him to rule at all. No wonder he was a terrible king. In this TL, he’s at least well-regarded enough to be count of the least of his father’s territory.
[6] For those who like Norman Sicily, did you think I’d forget this jerk? Hugo Falcundus was an OTL chronicler throughout much of the kingdom’s history, probably being a prominent figure of some sort, who loved court gossip and ascribing evil motives to anyone and everyone. In short, hilarious and a major source of ITTL information as well.
[7] I don’t actually know how old Simon of Taranto was, but I imagine he’d be near to the age of his brothers, maybe on the younger side. He was pretty energetic OTL, and took part in at least one rebellion against William I. Here, Roger is probably less of a jerk and lets him keep his title.
[8] Happened OTL, Frederick apparently cut off the Commune ambassador in the middle of a long-winded speech and made fun of Ancient Rome. Don't you love history?
[9] Like Hugo Falcandus and Tancred of Lecce, I’m not going to just leave Maio of Bari by the wayside. In OTL, he apparently had some sort of secret police that fended off threats to himself (as William I’s chief minister), and to the king himself. He was murdered in 1160 in OTL by a son-in-law, who later tried to overthrow William I as well.
[11] Honestly, OTL Sicily had so many close saves from invasion due to their brutal summer that I figure they could get an equivalent to General Winter.
[11] Yes, that Andronikos Komnenos. No Emperor Paranoid this time!