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power. His son and successor Ahmed was the father of the poor, but inexorable in the punishment of crime, and 18,000 persons were executed during his reign. The commander of the faithful, Motedad, married Cotr-en-neda (Dewdrop) the daughter of Khemeruyah, son of Ahmed, and on her road to Bagdad, she found each evening a tent splendid, and furnished as the palace of her father, prepared for her reception. Haroon, the grandson of Ahmed, fell in defence of his kingdom, A. D. and with him ended the dynasty of the Tooloonides. 905. Egypt was reunited to the dominions of the khalif Mohtadi Billah. But twenty-nine years afterwards another Turk, Akhsheed, separated it anew, and it never again obeyed the khalifs of Bagdad.

The Gasnevides.

934.

Sebuktajee, a slave of a minister of the Samanians, by 997. valour and prudence obtained the government of the city and district of Gasna or Ghizni. His son Mahmood gradually extended his power from the Caspian to the Indus, and the khalif honoured him with the title of Sultan. The power of Mahmood increased with eastern rapidity. India attracted his cupidity: since the days of Seleucus Nicator she had not been penetrated to any extent by a foreign conqueror: she abounded in treasure; her people were unwarlike: Mahmood and his Moslems poured down on her from her northern frontier: he reached the Ganges; resistance was ineffectual; all submitted. His religious zeal was displayed in the destruction of the idols of India, and an incredible treasure rewarded his holy warfare. Twelve times did the Gasnevide monarch march to the pillage of this rich and feeble country.

Spain.

Family dissensions and the revolt of governors diminished the power of the dynasty founded by Abd-errahman, and the Christians gradually extended their possessions from the mountains to the plain.

A. D. 914.

933.

After a contest of two hundred years a Christian kingdom was founded under Ordoño, of which Leon was the capital. The laws of the Goths were re-established; and this was the commencement of the heroic age of Spain, when she put forth every manly virtue, and fought with religious zeal, patriotic feeling, and knightly honour.

A county had been formed at Burgos by Fernando 1033. Gonzales. On the failure of his posterity it was formed into the kingdom of Castile in favour of Fernando, son of Sanchez, king of Navarre. This last kingdom had been formed by the descendants of the valiant Gascon, count Acnor, who had (831) crossed the Pyrenees to conquer lands from the infidels. They had also made themselves masters of the fruitful plains of Catalonia. At the time when the empire of the khalifs of Cordova was falling to pieces, almost the entire of the Christian states were united under Sanchez of Navarre. But he again separated them, giving only Navarre to his eldest son, leaving Castile to Fernando, who had acquired Leon by marriage, and forming in the mountains about the little stream of the Aragon the kingdom so denominated for his natural son Ramirez; a kingdom which, by wise laws and able rulers, eclipsed all in the Peninsula.

Bernhard, of the family of the dukes of Aquitaine, whom Charlemagne had made count of Barcelona, 864. became, in a great measure, independent: his son Winfred became completely so. Count Raymond Be1137. renger obtained by marriage the kingdom of Aragon.

All these sovereigns pressed on the Mohammedan emirs, who were less united. The latter, unable to 1086. withstand, called over Yoossef-ben-Takhfin the Almoravide, who had just founded the empire of Morocco. He came, repulsed the Christians; and all Spain, south of the mountains of Castile, was united under his dominion.

CHAP. V.

INCREASE OF THE PAPAL POWER.

Italy The Normans.

AFTER the Normans had embraced Christianity, they became distinguished for their devotion according to the fashion of the times. Of this pilgrimage formed a principal part; and the variety and the dangers of it were pleasing to the valiant Normans. On a visit of a num- A. D. ber of them to the cavern of Mount Garganus, in Apulia, 1016. they were accosted by a citizen of Bari, who held out large hopes if they would assist in expelling the Greeks from Italy. They consented, and, the following year, a large body passed the Alps in small parties, and united in Apulia. They were unsuccessful against the Greek troops; but they kept together, and were employed by the neighbouring princes in their quarrels. The duke of Naples built for them the town of Aversa. Numbers 1029. of every nation flocked to their standard. Count Rainulf was their commander.

The Saracens had now held Sicily for two centuries. 1038. They were fallen into disunion, had thrown off their allegiance to the king of Tunis: each petty chief aimed at independence. The court of Byzantium was always anxious to recover the island: the present opportunity seemed favourable. Two brothers of the Saracens being at enmity, one applied for the aid of the Christians. The Grecian governor of Italy was directed to engage the Normans, and five hundred of their knights were enrolled. On landing in Sicily, the Saracens were found united; but nothing could resist Norman valour, and thirteen cities and a great part of the island were reduced to the obedience of the emperor. In the division of the spoil the Normans were unjustly treated, and on their return to Italy they invaded Apulia, to indemnify them- 1040.

selves. Their whole forces were 700 horse and 500 foot; the imperial troops are stated at 60,000; yet, in the course of three years, the empire retained only the A. D. towns of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum. 1043. The Normans divided their conquests into twelve dis

tricts, over each of which was a count, one of whom, under the title of count of Apulia, presided in their councils, held in the town of Melfi. The first count of Apulia was William of the Iron Arm, equally distinguished in the virtues of war and peace.

The rapacity and injustice of the Normans made them hated. The court of Byzantium sought to deliver Italy from them, by inducing them to take a settlement in Asia, on the frontiers of Persia; but the wily Normans saw through and rejected the imperial munificence. The Byzantine agent Argyrus thus foiled, determined on force, and a league was formed between the pope Leo IX. and the emperors of the East and West, against 1049. them. The pope travelled to Germany to seek aid. Argyrus caused a number of the Normans to be assassinated. On the return of the pope, with a small band of German auxiliaries, a force considerable in number was collected. The Normans were deserted by all; they could only muster 3000 horse; they were reduced to great straits for want of provisions, were dispirited by famine and superstition, and offered to submit. The alternative of death or exile was given by the pope : they resolved to die as soldiers, engaged the enemy, defeated them, and took the pope prisoner at Civitella. The warriors knelt and implored his forgiveness; the 1053. well-meaning pontiff lamented his error: by his right, derived from the grant of Constantine, he bestowed on them their present and future conquests in Apulia and Calabria, as a fief of the holy see, which relation the kingdom of Naples has ever since retained.

Tancred de Hauteville, a valvassor of Normandy, had twelve sons; and his patrimony was small: ten of them, at various times, crossed the Alps, and joined the Normans in Apulia. Robert, surnamed Guiscard, (Wizard?)

A. D.

the fourth of them, soon became distinguished. He commanded a division at Civitella, and gained there the prize of valour. His three elder brothers, William of the Iron Arm, Drogo, and Humphry, had successively attained to the rank of Count of Apulia. On the death of the last named, leaving his sons minors, their claims were postponed to those of Robert, and he was chosen count of Apulia. The pope Nicholas conferred on him and his posterity the title of duke of Apulia; but he 1060. waited till the next campaign had achieved the conquest of Reggio and Cosenza, and then he called on his victorious troops to confirm what the pope had bestowed. The soldiers joyfully hailed him duke, and he henceforth entitled himself, " By the grace of God and St. Peter duke of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily." But many years elapsed before he was master of all these dominions. The Normans were few; the counts were not attached to him, and often conspired against him; the sons of Humphry asserted their claims, and plotted against him; the Greeks and Lombards defended the towns on the sea-coast with skill and courage, and the Normans were unused to sieges. Twenty years were spent in giving his dominions the extent of the present kingdom of Naples.

The conquest of Sicily was achieved in the reign of 1060. Robert Guiscard. Roger, the last of the twelve brothers, having arrived in Apulia, Robert admired, then envied his noble qualities. The Greeks had abandoned Sicily, and its conquest was proposed to Roger. With sixty followers, he crossed the strait, and drove the Saracens to the gates of Messina. The spoils acquired attracted

others to his standard; his brother aided; small bodies
of Normans overthrew large armies of the Moslems;
and at the end of thirty years Roger, with the title of 1090.
Great Count, was master of the island. His government
The Moslems

was liberal and judicious beyond the age.
were protected in their persons, religion, and property.
The ambition of Robert aimed at conquest in the
Greek empire. His daughter had been betrothed to the

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