Conquest

Only four men survived the courageous charge, and they were soon rounded up. Hereward learned from the Byzantine prisoners that his foe was General Michael Andronicus from Rhodes, a man with nearly thirty years’ service, who had risen from the junior ranks of an army he had joined as a boy of fifteen. He was given an interment worthy of his rank and distinguished service, in a ceremony that Hereward supervised personally and with all the respect due to a fellow warrior.

Calabria was cleared of the Byzantine army by the end of the year; Roger Guiscard returned to Melfi a hero, and southern Italy became a Norman stronghold. Duchess Adela was determined that Norman rule would be at least palatable to the local Italian population, if not embraced by them. She worked tirelessly to ameliorate the usual Norman brutalities, and life in Apulia became peaceful and prosperous.

Hereward and his loyal group, flourishing in the warm Mediterranean climate, became assimilated into the Norman community, speaking their language and enjoying their zest for life. There was much for Torfida to do and, while Ingigerd and Maria looked after the farmhouse that the three couples shared, she became, in essence, the steward of Adela’s domain. She learned much from the locals about Greek and Arab healing and had already acquired a good grounding in the Arabic language.

Hereward’s military knowledge was expanding at a pace, as was his understanding of the strengths and frailties of men in battle. Being at war suited him; he needed to fight, to satisfy his martial instincts. But he needed a reason to fight — not just wantonly and savagely, as most men did, but for a purpose that he felt was just.

Even though Robert Guiscard was a tyrant whose family ethic was founded on aggression and conquest, the Normans had brought much to their previously troubled domain. Hereward had a love of tolerance and justice that was shared by Roger Guiscard and the Duchess Adela, and thus found moral justification for fighting on behalf of his hosts.

The campaigns in Calabria and Sicily were a new kind of warfare for Hereward. This involved much more mobile battles than were usual in northern Europe. The rapid deployment of cavalry was vital, as was the need to move supplies at great speed. Naval warfare was also on a larger scale than in northern Europe. Hereward encountered ‘Greek fire’, spewed forth from the telltale dragon’s mouth mounted on the bow of Byzantine triremes. It was said that only the Emperor of Byzantium himself knew the secret ingredients of ‘the fire’. Once ignited in wooden cylinders lined with lead and catapulted into the opposing fleet, it would spew its deadly contents everywhere. Its main ingredient was pitch, which meant it adhered to anything it hit, including sails, ships’ timbers and, of course, men. It would even continue to burn on and under water.

The Normans recruited many mercenaries from North Africa, Spain and the Adriatic, men whose families had fought Saracens for generations. From them Hereward learned of warfare by stealth — techniques little known in the north — where men stood and faced one another in open conflict. He was fascinated by the tactics of infiltration, disruption and deception. He learned how, under cover of darkness or by the use of camouflage, a small group of men, or even a single man, could burn tents, poison wells, scatter horses, steal weapons, or assassinate leaders.

During the Sicilian campaigns, Hereward would often lead incursions into Saracen camps to create havoc. One of his companions, Alphonso of Granada, a man with a good deal of Arab blood in him, became Hereward’s most trusted accomplice and a close friend. Eventually, the small but immensely agile and robust young man became accepted by Martin and Einar as the fourth member of their brotherhood-in-arms.

Hereward became the most respected man in Roger’s army. He was a trusted knight and friend to his Norman employer, who was himself a noble warrior. There was even a reconciliation of sorts between Hereward and Duke Robert.

After a particularly gruelling but successful campaign in Sicily, the Duke invested Hereward into the chivalrous Order of the Knights of the Cotentin, an honour normally given only to Normans.

As 1062 turned into 1063, Hereward began to sense that Norman success in Sicily was only a matter of time; although a vast and mountainous island, the Saracens were being rooted out of its rugged terrain village by village, and their total expulsion was inevitable.

As winter set in, Torfida noticed Hereward increasingly looking north. He could see the dark, brooding clouds over the high Apennines, imagery which reminded him of home. She knew that it was time for their journey to resume.