Early career in Italy
Richard, who came from near Dieppe in the Pays de Caux in eastern Normandy, was the son of Asclettin I, count of Acerenza, younger brother of Asclettin II, count of Aversa, and nephew of Rainulf Drengot. Richard arrived in Southern Italy shortly after Rainulf's death in 1045, accompanied by forty Norman knights. When he first arrived in Aversa, according to Amatus of Montecassino Richard was well received by the people who followed him as if he were a count.''The History of the Normans by Amatus of Montecassino'', trans. Prescott N. Dunbar, ed. Graham A Loud (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004), p. 84 He was described as strikingly handsome, a young man of open countenance who by design rode a horse so small his feet nearly touched the ground.The eleventh-century warhorse was usually smaller, usually no taller than 12 hands; 14 to 15 hands at the largest. By comparison, 10 hands is the size of a modern Shetland pony while 12 is still a pony. A modern small Hunter is 14 hands. The size of medieval warhorses are based contemporary illustrations showing the knights riding "long" with the stirrups hanging well below the horse's midsection. See John France, ''Western warfare in the age of the Crusades, 1000-1300'' (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), p. 23. But the attention he garnered disturbed his cousin, Rainulf Trincanocte, the reigning Count of Aversa who asked him to leave. Richard then took up service with Humphrey of Hauteville, brother ofCount of Aversa
He was present, in 1053, at the Battle of Civitate, where he commanded the right wing against thePrince of Capua
Relations with Gaeta
Richard betrothed his daughter to the son of Atenulf I, Duke of Gaeta, but when the boy died before the marriage took place, he demanded the morgengab anyway. The duke refused and consequently Richard besieged and took Aquino. Even before the siege of Aquino was finished, Richard as the Prince of Capua, visited the abbey of Monte Cassino with a small force to give thanks to St.Benedict''The History of the Normans by Amatus of Montecassino'', trans. Prescott N. Dunbar, ed. Graham A Loud (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004), p. 115 He was welcomed with all due pomp and ceremony and in turn he issued a grant of protection to the Monastery's property. The monastery had previously been under the control of the fanatically anti-Norman abbot Frederick of Lorraine, who was replaced when Pope Stephen IX died, the Normans were warmly welcomed.John Julius Norwich, ''The Normans in the South 1016-1130'' (London: Longmans, 1967), p. 110 But Desiderius of Benevento, the new the abbot of Montecassino, asked Richard to extort only 4000 '' sous'' from Duke Atenulf which, after several more weeks of trying to hold out, the duke finally paid. In 1062, Richard sent his sonRelations with the papacy
In February 1059, Hildebrand, the future Pope Gregory VII, then only a high-ranking member of the Papal Curia, travelled to Capua to enlist his aid on behalf of the reforming Pope Nicholas II against the antipope Benedict X.John Julius Norwich, The Normans in the South 1016-1130 (London: Longmans, 1967), p. 124 Soon, Richard was besieging Benedict in Galeria and, in 1059, Nicholas convened a synod at Melfi where he confirmed Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily and Richard as count of Aversa and prince of Capua. Richard swore allegiance to the papacy and respect for papal territory, completely transforming the political loyalties of the south of Italy and removing the few remaining independent Greek and Lombard princes and the Holy Roman Emperor from the picture. In 1061 he, again at Hildebrand's request, militarily installed the reformers' papal candidate Alexander II against the claims of an antipope, this time Honorius II. He was rapidly becoming a popemaker, though, in 1066, still bent on expanding in all directions his power, he marched on Rome itself, but was beaten back by the pope's Tuscan allies. In 1071, when Robert Guiscard was away besieging Palermo, his chief barons, Abelard and Herman, sons of his brother Humphrey, Peter, lord of Trani, and the lord of Giovinazzo rebelled with the support of Richard of Capua and Gisulf of Salerno. Though Robert quickly dispelled all threats to his power from within, he took ill and could not make an expedition against Richard, who was soon confirmed in his possessions by and allied with the new pope, Gregory VII, Hildebrand. In 1076, in response to the Emperor Henry IV's deposition of the pope, Robert and Richard each sent ambassadors to the other. They met midway and arranged a meeting of the two rulers at Monte Cassino later that year. An alliance was formed, and the pope, by excommunicating the emperor, having proven capable of taking care of himself, the two Norman leaders sat down to besiege Gisulf in Salerno. The siege was successful and Gisulf fled to Capua, where he tried to stir up Richard against Robert, who had kept Salerno, but to no avail. Richard began to besiege Naples, still independent, with the aid of Robert's naval blockade. Then, on 3 March 1078, the pope excommunicated Robert and Richard and soon after Richard lay dying in Capua. He quickly reconciled with the church and died. His eldest son, the aforementioned Jordan, who had been invading ecclesiastic domains in the Abruzzi at the time, traveled to Rome to renew his fealty to the papacy and be confirmed in his father's titles and possessions. Naples remained untaken.Family
Richard married Fredescende d'Hauteville, daughter of Tancred of Hauteville and sister of Robert Guiscard Duke of Apulia. Together they had: * Jordan I of Capua *Notes
References
Further reading
* Chalandon, Ferdinand. ''Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile''. Paris, 1907. *Loud, G. A. "A Calendar of the Diplomas of the Norman Princes of Capua". ''Papers of the British School at Rome'' 49 (1981), 99–143. *Skinner, Patricia. ''Family Power in Southern Italy: The Duchy of Gaeta and its Neighbours, 850–1139''. Cambridge, 1995.