when the latter visited southern Italy at the emperor's command to re-establish the "freedom of the church" (libertas ecclesiae). Leo forced a promise from Drogo that he would stop the Normans from pillaging. In August, as he was returning from this meeting with the pope, Drogo was assassinated at Monteilaro, near Bovino, the victim of a Byzantine conspiracy organised by the Catepan Argyrus, who was planning the reconquest of Apulia. Drogo was buried in the church of the Santissima Trinità in Venosa. Drogo was succeeded by his younger brother Humphrey after a brief interregnum. A certain Richard, who joined the First Crusade, has been identified as Drogo's son. Notes Sources Raoul Manselli. "Altavilla, Drogone d'". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 2, Alberto Ghisalberti (ed.) Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, 1960. H. M. Gwatkin and J. P. Whitney, edd. The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926. John Julius Norwich. The Normans in the South, 1016–1130. London: Longmans, 1967. Ferdinand Chalandon. Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicilie. Paris: 1907. Christopher Gravett and David Nicolle. The Normans: Warrior Knights and their Castles. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2006. George Beech. A Norman-Italian Adventurer in the East: Richard of Salerno. 1993. External links History of the Norman World. 1051 deaths Italo-Normans Norman warriors Counts of Apulia and Calabria Assassinated royalty Year of birth uncertain Drogo Burials at the Abbey of Santissima Trinità, Venosa