Battle of Civitate

In the battle of Civitate on 18 June 1053 Norman army defeated the papal army of Pope Leo IX.

Background

The Normans made ​​it to southern Italy and thus accepted the donation of Aversa, from the year 1030. This alarmed the Pope. In 1052, Leo IX. Arrived, born Count Bruno of Eguisheim in Alsace, with Emperor Henry III. in Saxony, to discuss the " Norman Plage " and to Henry to ask for help. Help, however, he was only granted in the form of a small army, which was but called back again soon, what drove a wedge between the German Emperor and the papacy in further consequence, and so Leo returned in March 1053 back to Rome. With him only 700 Swabian mercenaries attracted under the leadership of Count Adalbert II of Winterthur and its brother the Reichsbanner carrier Graf Werner II of maggots ( both were related to Leo ), and about 2,000 men from the general population of Italy and Lombardy. He therefore sought an alliance with the Emperor of Byzantium, which also came into being, and so he moved confidently against the Normans to the south direction Siponto. But the Normans blocked his way to the Byzantines, and then the army at Civitate ( village no longer exists; near San Paolo di Civitate ) met at the river Fortore, northwest of Foggia.

The Battle

The Norman army was inferior to the army of the Pope numerically far and so they sought once their salvation in negotiations, but were stopped immediately by the pope in great confidence of the imminent appearance of the Byzantines under Argyros. This meant that the army on June 18, 1053 attacked the Pope.

The Pope was able to expand his army to about 6,000 men and the Normans brought it only to about 3,500, most of them were, however, heavily armed and on horseback.

The Normans were divided into three blocks. Each block was commanded by one of Norman Count. The center of Richard of Aversa, the right wing of Humfred of Hauteville and the left of Robert Guiscard, the brother Humfreds. The papal army was commanded by Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, and Rudolf of Benevento, while Count Adalbert commanded his Swabia. The Pope himself watching from the Battle of Civitate.

The Norman cavalry rode down the hill on the plain before the city to perform a common onslaught of heavy cavalry to the main army of the Pope. The move was successful, and so the Pope remained only the Swabian infantry. Robert Guiscard did himself here as a great fighter out, but he was even pulled off the horse, according to legend three times and fought back again and again. The Swabians were now hopelessly lost and were destroyed without exception, also Adalbert II of Winterthur and Werner II of maggots were killed.

The Pope himself was captured and had to acknowledge the Norman counts as legitimate masters of the territories conquered by them during his nine-month imprisonment in Benevento. All Counts received their areas by the Pope as a fief. As the capture vonstattenging, is not entirely clear. On one hand, it was reported that the Pope gave himself to escape death, while other sites report that it surrendered the city to avoid being dragged.