Robert does homage to Alexios.
Robert at Laodikeia. Macedonian lands where the rule of Byzantium had again displaced the rule of Ochrida, but to which the name of the people whom Samuel had made terrible still clave, as in the language of fact, though not of diplomacy, it cleaves still. They reached Thessalonica, they reached Constantinople, and wondered at the glories of the New Rome.[1] There, as in duty bound, they pledged their faith to the truest heir of the Roman majesty, whose lost lands they were to win back from the misbelievers. Before the throne of Alexios Robert the Norman knelt; he placed his hands between the Imperial hands, and arose the sworn liegeman of Augustus.[2] The homage of Harold to Robert's father was not more binding than the homage of Robert to Alexios; but an English earl and a Norman crusader were measured in those days by different standards. The host passed on; at Nikaia, at Antioch, at Jerusalem, Robert was ever foremost in fight and in council. Yet the old spirit was not wholly cast out. When the English Warangians at Laodikeia hailed their joint leaders in the son of their Conqueror and in the heir of their ancient kings,[3]
- ↑ Fulcher bursts into ecstasy at the sight of Constantinople, and William of Malmesbury takes the opportunity to tell its history. From iv. 356 and the note it appears that he knew his Emperors, and that his editor did not.
- ↑ See Fulcher, 386; Orderic, 728 A; Will. Malms. iv. 357. They all record the homage, except in the case of Count Raymond of Toulouse, who would only swear, but not do homage. The Count of Flanders seems a little doubtful; but the words of William of Malmesbury are explicit as to Robert; "Normannus itaque et Blesensis comites hominium suum Græco prostraverunt; nam jam Flandrita transierat, et id facere fastidierat, quod se meminisset natum et educatum libere." Orderic seems to take a real pleasure in speaking of Alexios as Augustus and Cæsar, the latter title being a little beneath him. His subjects however are not only "Græci," but "Pelasgi," "Achæi," anything that would do for the grand style. Presently Nikaia appears (728 B) as "totius Romaniæ caput." So William of Malmesbury speaks of "Minor Asia quam Romaniam dicunt." Here "Romania" means specially the Turkish kingdom of Roum; in more accurate geography it takes in the European provinces of the Empire.
- ↑ See above, p. 560, and Ord. Vit. 778 A, B, where he describes the coming of Eadgar, of which more in a later chapter, and his near friendship with Robert.
