[Sidenote: The Normans become the vassals of the Pope, 1059.] In the years that followed the battle of Civitate, the Normans had steadily extended their power over Apulia and Calabria. But the south of Italy is so rugged and mountainous that even the bravest of warriors could only win their way slowly. In 1057 the valiant Count Humphrey died, leaving his sons so young that he had been constrained to beg his brother Robert to act as their protector. But the barons of Apulia insisted that Robert should be their count in full succession to Humphrey. Soon after Roger of Hauteville, the youngest of the twelve sons of Tancred, left the paternal roof to share the fortune of his brothers. ‘He was,’ says Geoffrey of Malaterra, ‘a fine young man, of lofty stature and elegant proportions. Very eloquent in speech, wise in counsel, and gifted with extraordinary foresight, he was gay and affable to all, and so strong and valiant that he soon gained the good graces of every one.’ [Sidenote: Roger of Hauteville.] Robert Guiscard received Roger in a more brotherly spirit than had been shown on his own first arrival by Drogo and Humphrey. He gave him a sufficient following of troops and sent him to Calabria, where he soon established himself as lord of half the district, though under his brother’s overlordship. Meanwhile, Richard of Aversa had driven out the Lombards from Capua and added it to his dominions. The Normans were still, however, not free from danger from the Popes. Victor II. had disapproved of Leo IX.’s policy, yet before his death he had become their enemy. Stephen IX. formed various projects against them. But Hildebrand now turned Nicholas II. to wiser counsels. In 1059 Hildebrand went in person to Capua and concluded a treaty with Count Richard, who, as the ally of the monks of Monte Casino, was the most friendly of the Norman chieftains to the Church. Almost immediately the archdeacon returned to Rome with a strong Norman escort, and soon after a Norman army spread terror among the partisans of the Antipope. [Sidenote: Synod of Melfi.] In the summer of 1059 Nicholas himself held a synod in Melfi, the Apulian capital, where he passed canons condemning married priests. After the formal session was over, the Pope made Robert Guiscard Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and ‘future Duke’ of Sicily, if he should ever have the good luck to drive out the infidels. [Sidenote: Robert, Duke of Apulia; and Richard, Duke of Capua.] In return Robert, ‘Duke by the grace of God and of St. Peter,’ agreed to hold his lands as the Pope’s vassal, paying an annual rent of twelve pence for each ploughland. Richard of Capua, either then or earlier, took the same oath. Thus the famous alliance between the Normans and the Papacy was consummated, which by uniting the strongest military power in Italy to the papal policy, enabled the Holy See to wield the temporal with almost as much effect as the spiritual sword.