Alberto's Reign Part II
Upon his arrival at Cagliari, Alberto discovered that his liege, the Governor of Pisa had arrived several days prior, easily scattering the forces of the enemy. Alberto, rejoicing at what initially would appear to be a simple conquest, placed his men at the disposal of the Governor. What follows is shrouded in the mists of history. The Pisan Governor, evidently fond as those in corrupted democracies tend to be of flesh and wine, expired as a result of either one or the two or a combination of the two merely one week after investing the fortress of Cagliari, a scant motte and bailey which posed little difficulties for the well-equipped and numerous Pisan host. In the wake of the Governor’s sudden death, his successor, a Marshal who stood an excellent chance in the elections to follow, opted to depart with the Pisan forces, upon his return he subsequently made good use of the army in securing his accession.
A rendering of the fortress at Cagliari
Alberto, distraught at the loss of his allies considerable contributions to their enterprise here slipped into a dolorous and woeful state, left to siege Cagliari with the small force he mustered from Corsica, perhaps a thousand men. Many foolish assaults upon the castle were attempted in order to bring the siege to a quick conclusion, an early demonstration of the Obertenghis’ famous impatience. The Corsican army grew malcontent and troublesome, fragments of letters which survive suggest a displeasure in the leadership of the army with Alberto’s sometimes impetuous and erratic actions. Alberto, long well-regarded for his earnest judgment, stood in danger of being condemned as both irregular and perhaps more condemningly, made weak by his well-known admiration of his wife, considered a demonstration of weakness by some his peers, whose wives often had no comparable influence. A petition to the Pope by the Archbishop of Francia, a noted crusader who liberated Medjerda from the heathen, sought his intervention to bring an end to the war, as he insisted it drew resources in the area from the ongoing back and forth struggle with the Zirid kingdom, who were recently joined in their fight by the Emir of Mallorca. The Pope, under influence by the inconstant but perhaps guilty new Governor of Pisa, denied the petition to declare a peace of God.
The Conquering Archbishop
Ultimately, after Alberto ordered a battering ram assault upon the Castle which failed to dislodge the enemy of their position, Torcotore, the Count of Cagliari, his men starving and gaunt after a year spent defending their walls with little nourishment, succumbed to Alberto’s demands and capitulated. He surrendered the Lordship of Cagliari to Alberto, rendering him count of both Sardinia and Corsica. Alberto, after deputizing his marshal to remain in Cagliari as his deputy, returned to Corsica, where Margherita and Azzo Terzi had acted as regents in his absence, succeeding in maintaining Corsica’s income, although the war left the Island in a tremendous amount of debt, the sum assumed to be roughly equivalent to a century of Corsica and Cagliari’s combined income.
Shortly after Alberto’s departure, Margherita gave birth to their first son, whom she named Chiano. Initially a healthy young man, Margherita’s treatment of Chiano has long been the subject of debate. Perhaps succumbing to the weaknesses and optimism of a young first tiem mother, she permitted herself to both nurse the boy and cared for him herself, a practice often discouraged, and rightly so, by both noblewomen now and then as one which creates both indulgent children and threatens too firm an attachment to a young child whose survival to adult years is by no means certain. Nevertheless, Alberto upon his return from Cagliari condoned Margherita in this, as in all things, a testament to his faith in her or her dominion over him. Detractors of Alberto, most notably the his cousin Sebastiano Obertenghi, who in the years following his death attempted to portray his own cadet line of Obertenghi as the dominant branch, although he himself descended from the great lord Obert’s younger brother, often put this forward as an excuse for challenging the legitimacy of the Obertenghi, claiming it demonstrated their lack of internal fortitude, made manifest in Alberto’s indulgence of Margherita as in his father’s indulgence of wine. None of these criticism would have survived to us no doubt, had Chiano not perished shortly before his second birthday, the victim of an unknown ailment.
After Chiano’s death, Margherita evidently retreated from public life for a time, devastated and pregnant with the couple’s second child, a son, Demetrio, born early the year following Chiano’s death. Around this time Alberto sent for his bastard son Germano, known to history as Germano the Mad or the Apostate, whose story we shall revisit, to live at court with him in Ajaccio, removing him from his previous foster parents.
Margherita did not care for Demetrio as she did for Chiano, indeed, it is said that following his birth she insisted that he be sent immediately to the nurses, refusing to look upon him saying “It is better than he be loved by another, my own love is much diminished and my heart yet breaks for his brother.” Her influence on affairs of state remained present, although Alberto more often appeared to act with an eye to pleasing her rather than at her direction, though this remains speculative given the vagaries of any relationship and the woman’s individual dynamism. However, the weakness of her sex can not be dismissed in arriving at the conclusion that she suffered disproportionately as a result of Chiano’s death.
Alberto now spent much more time with Azzo, seeking to find a method to further expand his dominion and refusing to be born down by the death of his son as his wife was, the fire of his ambition stoked by the by his recent taste of conquest. The two came together again most famously upon Alberto’s coronation as Duke of Sardinia, a bold title without precedent he seized for himself previously as he proclaimed by right of conquest. Proper donations to the Papacy were made for the appearance of legitimacy, as well as to secure his support for Alberto’s subsequent withdrawal of fealty from the Governor of Pisa, as he somewhat audaciously declared the two peers, and thus unfit to remain lord and vassal. Alberto declared to Azzo that “Upon thy sweat my Kingdom’s foundation lies.” The Governor of Pisa, embroiled in the ever expanding crusade against the Zirid kingdom, who tenaciously held Tunisia even in the face of the combined armies of France, England, and the newly declared Kingdom of Naples, ruled by the Hauteville family, could do little to protest. The coronation elevated Alberto to a rank above and beyond that of Marques, the title he sometimes claimed as a descendent of Obert, into a grander station as dux Sardinia. In Genoa and Pisa the courtiers derisively proclaimed the accession of the Pauper Count into his more appropriate but no less laughable station, that of Pauper Duke, as the lands now ruled by Alberto remained amongst the poorest in the Mediterranean. Indeed, Alberto overcame his debt only through the then novel practice of summoning an assembly of the people, burghers, and clergy, whom he requested to vote him a tax. The estates, still glowing from the conquest of Cagliari and Corsica’s triumphant victory, had readily agreed.
Some however, saw Alberto’s succession as impressive. The most noteworthy of these was Mariano Torchitorio, the Count of Arborea, that part of Sardinia which stood to the north of Cagliari. Impressed by the fact that Alberto’s demesne now bordered his upon all sides, he journeyed to Corsica and pledged his fealty to Alberto as Duke of Sardinia, himself a vassal for the County of Arborea. In this manner without a drop of blood Alberto’s reign extended to a third county.
Shortly after this submission, Alberto, heeding Azzo’s council that a direct war against Zirid would yet be suicide for his young and still quite impoverished duchy, sought to aid the crusade somewhat opportunistically but still plausibly righteously by declaring war upon the Emirate of Mallorca, insisting that the Moor’s armies which had so recently seized parts of the South of France could not have succeeded in their brash invasion of the Continent without the way stations provided by the Emir. Famously upon hearing this declaration the Duke of Tuscany lamented that “The Obertenghi’s avid collection of desolate Islands will soon render them a power second to none in its collection of beaches,” The Archbishop of Francia however, encouraged by the addition of a new state to the Crusade such that he forgave Alberto his previous war, marched on the mainland Iberia possessions of the Emir in a bid to support the effort. Alberto thus clamored again to his fleet and summoned the armies of Corsica, Cagliari, and Arborea to support the conquest of Mallorca and Menorca.
Alberto went to war upon this occassion with a force far greater than any he previously mustered, befitting his newfound rank. Even Mariano, his vassal, heeded the call to war and set sail, with all ordered to converge first upon the Island of Mallorca.
Commentary by Harun Obertenghi
Clearly, Pandulf’s almost casual condemnation of Margherita’s parenting of Chiano as over-sensitive and indulgent, extending so far as to imply the same accusation against Alberto by virtue of his refusal to act firmly to end this attachment, is roundly condemned by scholars and his famous, almost offhand statement regarding the “weakness of her sex” has infuriated many over the past century. While clearly in reading the source it is important for us to interpret it through the lens of the author’s eye, a jaundiced eye is perhaps best pointed at these parts of the narrative. In considering Pandulf’s statements regarding Margherita it is important to remember that he himself was a monastic scribe of the early 15th century, with little experience with women, none with childrearing, and very little with an event as traumatic as the loss of a child. Thus, rather than condemning the source, as some of his detractors do, I advocate a view to the source which considers it within the context of its author- whose statements as such must be taken with a grain of salt. While Pandulf may seem to pass a harsh judgment on loving parents, it is important to remember that we read him not for parenting advice, but for history, and the judgment of Margherita’s near-contemporaries on her actions remains relevant.
Aside from this passage, Pandulf’s declaration of Alberto’s poor military judgment has drawn criticism from his heirs, who would like to resist the notion that the founder of their dynasty was at all lacking in martial quality. Indeed, when it was written, this passage garnered a great deal more attention at Court than any parental discussions. In determining the truth of these accusations, few records remain to us to compare with those Pandulf had access to in the library at Tangiers, or in the visit we know he took to Ajaccio in authoring this. However, in recent archeological digs near the site of the castle at Cagliari, remains of a long siege are present, longer than might be expected for such a relatively small castle,a s well as evidence of multiple assaults. Thus, it would appear that Alberto took the keep only with difficulty, no doubt longer than his contemporaries de Vivar and Guiscard would have taken. Yet rather than viewing this apparently mediocre ability as an insult, a descendent of Alberto myself I do not think it a great failing. Empires are built upon foresight and discretion, and only by necessity on battlefields. In his reign, Alberto exhibited a great deal of both, the benefits of which I believe were far more important than any qualities he lacked as a general.