by Jack Ludlow
If he was annoyed, William knew Guaimar was merely acting as a prince should: looking to his own interests. Rainulf kept him in power, protected him from his own subjects, and was of an age at which going off on campaign would be a hardship. He had a bastard son who might or might not come into his title; it was an inheritance Guaimar could block with ease, indeed it would be he who would be ensuring that no papal dispensation came for annulment, so he could keep the old Norman leader in his purse.
The man before him was of a different stamp: in his prime, a hero hailed as Iron Arm by those he had led and perhaps a fellow harder to control as a vassal. Yet, if he did not commit himself Guaimar could just as easily dangle before William the prospect of that same succession for as long as Rainulf lived.
William was trying to work out what to do on the same basis; he was head of his family and they looked to him to make their way, that made even more pressing by the arrival of three more brothers. His father had been betrayed in Normandy and this prince, who had embraced William at Capua and had acceded in the impression that he should succeed to Rainulf’s title, was very capable of doing the same.
Yet what he had said to Drogo was nothing but the plain truth. What made the Normans formidable was not just their military prowess but also their cohesion. To force a decision on the succession now would certainly fragment that, and it was possible that Guaimar would welcome such dissension; he might need his Normans, but he did not love them any more than his more forthright sister. William, just as much as Rainulf, lacked the means to force this prince to decide; all the advantage for Guaimar lay in the opposite!
If he led the Normans into Apulia and succeeded where previous invaders had failed, was he really prepared to hand it all over to Guaimar, who he suspected would do little to aid him? He might dream of a Lombard kingdom in South Italy ruled from Salerno, but if it was to come to pass it could only do so with Norman assistance.
Many strands of thought were running through William’s mind at that moment but the paramount one was simple: from this moment on he must look to his own future and to that of his family, must look to take what would be his due, not wait to be gifted it by any other power. Never again would he leave himself or the de Hauteville name at the mercy of any prince or duke.
He would go to Melfi, take over the fortress, aid Arduin and nourish Guaimar’s dreams. But like this prince, when the time came, he would look to his own interests and to those of his brothers. One day, he swore silently to God, just as he smiled at Guaimar in the way he had once smiled at Duke Robert of Normandy, this Prince of Salerno would acknowledge the blue and white banner of his house. And that sister, Berengara, so arrogant and spiteful to his Norman blood? Perhaps one day she would be made to bow and scrape to please him.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This novel, set around the time of El Cid and the Norman Conquest, is the first in a series that will chronicle the achievements of a remarkable family. Eventually seven of Tancred de Hauteville’s twelve sons travelled to Italy to take service as mercenaries. What they achieved in that troubled land is simply astounding.
As a military leader, William of Normandy had all the wealth and resources of his extensive dukedom with which to conquer England: the sons of Tancred had nothing but their imposing presence, their swords, their lances, their horses, their martial prowess, plus their considerable intelligence and guile. They entered a land of rich fiefs and city-states that brought to Europe all the luxuries of the Levant, a territory, since the break-up of the Roman Empire, that had seen conquest, rebellion, tyranny and had suffered, for five hundred years, ruthless exploitation.
They challenged first the power of the Lombards, then the authority of the Pope, next the supremacy of both the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires, and finally the Saracens to create a society more important for European civilisation than the Crusades. If the germ of the Italian Renaissance came from anywhere, it came from what they had created.
In telling this story, I am aware that it is one unfamiliar to most readers; few people even know of the exploits of the Normans in Italy and Sicily, and in the writing I have, quite deliberately, combined some of the real-life characters and the acts they performed, in order to keep the narrative exciting, while creating others.
I have made Guaimar a more central character than he was in reality, but he was heir to Salerno and it was he who persuaded the emperor to act against the true-life Pandulf of Capua; Berengara is an invention, but Rainulf is real, as is Conrad Augustus and the Abbot Theodore.
At the kernel is historical truth and the actual deeds of the brothers de Hauteville, heroes to those who served for and with them and deserving of a more recognised posterity.
D.D.
About the Author
JACK LUDLOW is the pen-name of writer David Donachie, who was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has always had an abiding interest in the Roman Republic as well as the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which he drew on for the many historical adventure novels he has set in that period. David lives in Deal with his partner, the novelist Sarah Grazebrook.
By the Same Author
By Jack Ludlow
THE CONQUEST SERIES
Mercenaries
Warriors
Conquest
THE REPUBLIC SERIES
The Pillars of Rome
The Sword of Revenge
The Gods of War
Written as David Donachie
THE JOHN PEARCE SERIES
By the Mast Divided
A Shot Rolling Ship
An Awkward Commission
A Flag of Truce
The Admirals’ Game
An Ill Wind
Blown Off Course
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
13 Charlotte Mews
London W1T 4EJ
www.allisonandbusby.com
Copyright © 2009 by DAVID DONACHIE
(writing as Jack Ludlow)
Hardback published Great Britain in 2009.
Paperback edition published in 2009.
This ebook edition first published in 2011.
Map of Italy © DAVID DONACHIE
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1065–2