‘The Normans are as much a plague to the Church of Rome as they are to Byzantium.’
Considering those words, with fingers arched before his mouth, Pope Leo was also sizing up this Lombard. He saw before him a solid-looking young man of fine countenance, with a direct gaze and a lack of the kind of excessive gestures or eager explanation which denoted insincerity.
‘Does the Emperor Constantine know of this meeting?’
‘No, Your Holiness, the court of the man I represent is not a place for confidences any more than Rome.’
‘Are the Normans not Christians?’
Argyrus knew the Pope was avoiding the point and, he surmised, seeking to find out, before he committed himself, the nature of the person with whom he was dealing.
‘Of a kind, though I sometimes wonder if there is a God, given that what they often do deserves that they be struck down by a bolt from Heaven.’
Leo replied, wearing a thin smile on his pale lips. ‘There is most certainly a God, my son, and should they seek his intercession he will forgive them.’
‘Do you?’
‘For their sins?’
‘For their actions in your fief of Benevento.’
Those arched hands parted to show open palms, and the freckled face took on a querying look. ‘Christ bore a cross to his Calvary, is it not fitting that the heir to St Peter should have the same kind of burden?’
‘So you are saying that you will turn the other cheek.’
‘When I first came to Italy it was as a soldier in the service of the Emperor Conrad — a bishop, yes, but a warrior who would not have recoiled at taking the life of anyone who opposed the imperial host. If I saw before me now a single head that I could remove, and by doing so eradicate a problem, I would be a soldier once more.’
‘That has been attempted.’
If he had hoped to shock Leo by a near open admission of secret murder, Argyrus failed: he was greeted by no reaction at all, so he was left to pose another question. ‘And if you had an army?’
‘Would you be offering me one?’
It was now the Lombard’s turn to smile. ‘Part of one, yes, for if I had the force necessary to defeat the Normans I would not have come to you here, would I?’
‘No. But you must know I do not have an army of my own to bolster yours.’
‘The day may come when you need one.’
‘And you think that day is near?’
‘What, Your Holiness, do you think the Normans will do once they have swallowed all of Benevento?’ That being greeted with more silence, Argyrus continued. ‘I think you must see that is what is going to happen, which will bring them to the borders of your own Papal States.’
Leo leant forward, nodding. ‘This I know.’
‘I cannot see what will satisfy them, can you?’
‘And you are suggesting?’
‘Force is the only thing they understand, and their removal from Italy is the only thing that will bring peace. Get the Western Emperor to join with the forces of his imperial cousin and together we will have an army too strong for the Normans to oppose.’
‘I am not sure Henry would wish to see Byzantium fully in control of Apulia once more.’
‘He would rather have a de Hauteville?’
‘No man relishes the choice of the lesser of two evils when he does not know which is the worse.’
‘We had peace before, we can have peace again,’ Argyrus insisted. ‘And I do not think it should be just the combination we have mentioned. You have massive authority through your office. Let us gather together all those who have suffered from Norman brutality, including Salerno.’
‘Guaimar?’
‘He has suffered more than most and he can hardly be said to be master in his own domains when he has Norman vassals like Richard of Aversa who do as they please. If he joins with us, others will follow, but no request from me to him would get so much as a hearing, but from you…’
‘You wish to remove the Normans from Italy?’ Leo asked.
‘Yes, but we must defeat them in battle first, then offer them that as a way out.’
‘And if they refuse?’
‘Then they must die, every one of them, down to the last boy-child. It is the only way.’
‘Would God forgive us for that?’
‘Would God forgive us for doing nothing, Your Holiness?’
‘I must go to Bamberg,’ Leo said, after a lengthy pause. ‘I must seek help from the emperor in person, but I will write to Salerno.’
When Guaimar received Pope Leo’s request to join in a grand coalition against the Normans he knew it was not a matter he could discuss with his counciclass="underline" the mere mention of it in public and it would be known in Aversa before a day had passed. In any other matter requiring discretion he might have sent for Kasa Ephraim, but he knew the Jew had extensive dealings with the Normans, so he could not be sure that any advice given would not be tainted by that connection. It was an indication, and an uncomfortable one, of how isolated he could become in such matters that the only person he had whom he could trust as a sounding board was his sister Berengara, and he was most discomfited, on broaching the matter, to be greeted by derisive laughter.
‘How long have I sought this,’ she said, ‘and how many times have you ignored me?’
‘I hesitated to even ask you. You have a half-Norman child.’
‘I have a girl-child who has tainted blood, but I will raise her to hate the Normans as much as I do. Did not her own relatives disown her?’
‘I have often wondered if it was you who had Drogo murdered.’
‘How I wish I had, and I would give my all to the man who did.’
‘So you had no hand in that?’
Berengara produced an enigmatic smile, one her brother had seen before and he knew was designed to bait him: he would never know if Berengara was guilty or not, for he would never hear either an admission or an outright denial from her lips.
‘Why did you laugh when I asked you if I should accede to Pope Leo’s request?’
‘How many times have you told me, brother, that a prince can not always do that which he wishes?’
‘Many times, for it is no less than the truth.’
‘So how do you think it makes me feel to tell you that if you agree to join Leo in his struggle against the Normans you would be a fool.’
‘Why?’
‘You know why, Guaimar. Look at a map. Richard of Aversa is between us and Rome and the de Hautevilles are on our border with Apulia.’
‘Argyrus could keep them occupied.’
‘If I hate the Normans, brother, I distrust Byzantium more. He would be happy to see Salerno humbled and then come to our aid when the city was in ruins.’
‘The depth of your thinking on this surprises me, Berengara.’
‘Why? Because I am a woman?’
Guaimar denied that, but they both knew it to be a lie.
‘So you think I should stand aside?’
‘I think you should return a polite response to the Pope saying that your honour does not permit you to attack one of your own vassals.’
Now it was Guaimar’s turn to laugh. ‘You expect the Pope to believe that?’
‘Who cares what he believes, brother? Much as you seek to blind yourself to it, I am my father’s daughter. He had Salerno taken from him by Rainulf and Pandulf and I often wonder if you recall how close we came to joining him in that simple tomb in which we buried him. Let Leo and Argyrus beat the Normans, and when they do we will rejoice, but I will not see Salerno destroyed first, which she will surely be, and long before either of those two can do anything to save us.’
Argyrus had entertained mixed hopes for Guaimar: he knew for the Prince of Salerno to join with him and Pope Leo would require a degree of daring. No one depended on Norman lances more than he and, while he was capable of raising armed levies of his own, as he had done in order to take Amalfi, the backbone of any force he had ever put in the field came from Aversa. What did surprise him was the way Guaimar decided to let his refusal be known: what should have been a secret, both the request and his negative response, were now known throughout Italy, severely denting any hopes of engaging the help of the other Lombard magnates.