Battle of Civitate

41°44′N 15°16′E / 41.733°N 15.267°E / 41.733; 15.267

Battle of Civitate

Battle plan of the Battle of Civitate.
Red: Normans. Blue: Papal coalition.
Date18 June 1053
Location
Result Norman victory
Belligerents
Normans

Papal coalition

Commanders and leaders
Humphrey of Hauteville
Robert Guiscard
Richard Drengot
Rudolf of Benevento
Gerard, Duke of Lorraine
Strength
3,000 horsemen
c. 500 infantry
c. 6,000, infantry and horsemen

The Battle of Civitate was fought on 18 June 1053 in southern Italy, between the Normans, led by the Count of Apulia Humphrey of Hauteville, and a Swabian-Italian-Lombard army, organised by Pope Leo IX and led on the battlefield by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine, and Rudolf, Prince of Benevento. The Norman victory over the allied papal army marked the climax of a conflict between the Norman mercenaries who came to southern Italy in the eleventh century, the de Hauteville family, and the local Lombard princes. By 1059 the Normans would create an alliance with the papacy, which included a formal recognition by Pope Nicholas II of the Norman conquest in south Italy, investing Robert Guiscard as Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and Count of Sicily.