Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/206

Birth and character of Robert Guiscard A.D. 1020-1085. The pedigree of Robert Guiscard^[1] is variously deduced from the peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess;^[2] from the dukes by the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects.^[3] His genuine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle order of private nobility.^[4] He sprang from a race of vahnssors or bannerets of the diocese of the Coutances, in the lower Normandy: the castle of Hauteville was their honourable seat; his father Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of the duke; and his military service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights. Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the father of twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial tenderness of his second wife. But a narrow patrimony was insufficient for this numerous and daring progeny; they saw around the neighbourhood the mischiefs of poverty and discord, and resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glorious inheritance. Two only remained to perpetuate the race and cherish their father's age; their ten brothers, as they successively attained the vigour of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps, and joined the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elder were prompted by native spirit; their success encouraged their younger brethren; and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and Humphrey, deserved to be the chiefs of their nation, and

empty distinction of "Ecclesia Romana non dedit sed accepit," and shrinks from an honest but dangerous confession of the truth.

1. The birth, character, and first actions of Robert Guiscard may be found in Jeffrey Malaterra (1. i. c. 3, 4, 11, 16, 17, 18, 38, 39, 40), Wilham Appulus (1. ii. p. 260-262), William Gemeticensis or of Jumieges (1. xi. c. 30, p. 663, 664, edit. Camden), and Anna Comnena (Alexiad. 1. i. p. 23-27 [c. 10, 11], 1. vi. p. 165, 166), with the annotations of Ducange (Not. in Alexiad. p. 230-232, 320), who has swept all the French and. Latin Chronicles for supplemental intelligence.
2. (Greek characters) (a Greek corruption [utt is the regidar symbol for the b sound in mediæaval and modern Greek; (Greek characters) would represent v) (Greek characters) [i. c. 10]. . . . Again, (Greek characters). And elsewhere (1. iv. p. 84 [c. i]), (Greek characters). Anna Comnena was born in the purple; yet her father was no more than a private though illustrious subject, who raised himself to the empire.
3. Giannone (tom. ii. p. 2) forgets all his original authors, and rests this princely descent on the credit of Inveges, an Augustine monk of Palermo, in the last century. They continue the succession of dukes from Rollo to William II. the Bastard or Conqueror, whom they hold (communeniente si tiene) to be the father of Tancred of Hauteville; a most strange and stupendous blunder! The sons of Tancred fought in Apulia, before William II. was three years old (A.D. 1037).
4. The judgment of Ducange is just and moderate: Certe humilis fuit ac tenuis Robert! familia, si ducalem et regium spectemus apicem, ad quern postea pervenit; quae honesta tanien et præter nobilium vulgariuin statum et conditionem illustris habita est, "quæ; nec humi reperet nee altum quid tumeret " (Wilhelm Malmsbur. de Gestig Anglorum, 1. iii. p. 107; Not. ad Alexiad. p. 230).