Siege of Capua

The siege of Capua was a military operation involving the states of medieval southern Italy, beginning in May 1098 and lasting forty days. It was an interesting siege historically for the assemblage of great persons it saw and militarily for the cooperation of Norman and Saracen forces which it necessitated.

The siege

The siege was instigated by

duke of Apulia, Roger Borsa. The two Rogers came, the former in exchange for the city of Naples

and the latter for Richard's recognition of Apulian suzerainty.

Roger of Sicily had lately arrested Robert, bishop of

Anselm of Aosta, then in self-exile from King William II of England, to go to meet the pope. According to Eadmer

, Anselm's biographer, "the Lord Pope and Anselm were neighbours at the siege."

Eadmer also gives us an interesting portrait of the Arabs, whose brown tents Anselm found "innumerable." According to Eadmer, many Arabs, impressed by tales of Anselm's holiness, visited his tent for food and other gifts. The biographer goes on to say that the count, whose soldiers the Saracens were, would not allow them, though many would readily have done so, to convert to the

Muslim or Greek oppose him, a Latin. It also assured the presence of an "outlet for the military instincts and talents of his Muslim subjects," according to historian John Julius Norwich

.

Aftermath

When the city surrendered, Richard was reinstated, Roger Borsa accepted his homage, and the pope and Roger of Sicily retired to Salerno.

Sources

Southern, R. W. Saint Anselm and His Biographer. Cambridge, 1963.
Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.