Richard's stategy called for two armies to converge on Florence with five thousand men, but his son-in-law Michaelangelo was defeated en route from Ravenna, leaving Richard with only three thousand men to attack the city. He nevertheless managed to defeat Eugenio of Canossa's larger force near Florence, a victory that gave Michaelangelo's army a clear path to avoid encirclement. Florence fell when Michaelangelo arrived and he and Richard marched on Modena together. Although Ravenna and Ancona were sacked by the Florentines, Richard was able to force peace on his enemies; in 1114, Eugenio of Canossa ceded Florence, submitted to Richard as a vassal, and paid a sum of 500 ducats. Eugenio would ultimately be removed as count five years later to prevent his son, a duke in Norway, from inheriting the province. Richard's revenge on the Canossas was total.
***
The fall of the Canossas did not end the antagonistic relationship between the Orsinis and the pope. When Pope Urban II refused to end Francis' excommunication after the latter recanted his heresy in 1115, Richard began to move against Rome. An alliance with Lombardia was obtained in 1116, and the next year Richard assembled an army of seven thousand soldiers to confront Urban. Rome and Orbatello were conquered before winter, and Urban fled to his overseas provinces, swearing to return and destroy the Orsinis. Richard's triumphant celebration on Christmas Day in Rome was distrupted by an attempt on his life; he survived, but was badly wounded. Local priests all throughout the nearby provinces rallied to the duke, declaring Urban to be a false pope. By 1118, the war spread to Spoleto, which was seized by Richard's armies and given to his son Otho. Urban finally relented in 1119, although Richard's terms were harsh; the pope was not to return to Italy, and Francis was to be received back into the arms of the church. Richard crushed a brief rebellion and set about restoring law and order to the countryside, building courts of justice all over his realm, and finally moved against the last of the pope's allies, Goffredo, Duke of Tuscany, in 1121. Tuscany was no match for Richard's experienced armies, and Richard, now duke of Tuscany and Spoleto, returned home as the ruler of a realm stretching from Modena in the north to Capua in the south. He granted provinces in Ancona to his loyal generals and bishops, choosing instead to rule from Rome.
***
During this time, Richard's son Loup and grandson Frederick had inherited counties in Aquitaine, and in 1121 Richard further expanded his political reach by marrying his daughter Bertha to Nestore de Velate of Pisa, an astute alliance intended to overcome the demise of his nephew Lazzaro two years earlier. Richard would not be destined to have time to enjoy these successes; in 1122, news reached Italy that the English king, Richard I, had gone to war with Humbert Capet. Richard left Rome and was in central France by mid-year, and in June he fought William Rufus, uncle to the English king and son of the deceased William the Conquerer, at the First Siege of Paris. The defeat there lost the city to the English and forced France to abandon its crusade in Spain. Richard fought and lost at the Second Siege of Paris as well, this time from outside the city walls, and then confronted William Rufus a third time at Chartres. Richard died in his sleep before the battle took place; he was fifty-five years old.
