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Otto III was the Holy Roman emperor and King of Italy from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu.
Boleslaus II the Pious, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 972 until his death in 999.
The Duchy of Gaeta was an early medieval state centered on the coastal South Italian city of Gaeta. It began in the early ninth century as the local community began to grow autonomous as Byzantine power lagged in the Mediterranean and the peninsula due to Lombard and Saracen incursions.
Docibilis II was the ruler of Gaeta, in one capacity or another, from 906 until his death. He was the son of the hypatus John I, who made him co-ruler in 906 or thereabouts.
John II was the duke of Gaeta, associated with his father Docibilis II and grandfather John I from 933 and sole ruler from the former's death in 954. His mother was Orania, of Neapolitan extraction. In 934, he was ruling alone with his father, his grandfather having died in the interim.
The dukes of Naples were the military commanders of the ducatus Neapolitanus, a Byzantine outpost in Italy, one of the few remaining after the conquest of the Lombards. In 661, Emperor Constans II, highly interested in south Italian affairs, appointed a Neapolitan named Basil dux or magister militum. Thereafter a line of dukes, often largely independent and dynastic from the mid-ninth century, ruled until the coming of the Normans, a new menace they could not weather. The thirty-ninth and last duke, Sergius VII, surrendered his city to King Roger II of Sicily in 1137.
Medieval Amalfi was ruled, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, by a series of dukes, sometimes called dogi, corresponding with the republic of Venice, a maritime rival throughout the Middle Ages. Before the title of Duke of Amalfi was formally established in 957, various patricians governed the territory. Amalfi established itself as one of the earliest maritime trading powers renowned throughout the Mediterranean, considered for two centuries, one of the most powerful of the maritime republics.
Richard III, also known as Richard of Caleno, was the Norman count of Carinola and last quasi-independent Duke of Gaeta, ruling from 1121 to his death. From 1113, he was regent of Gaeta for his cousin or nephew, Duke Jonathan; in 1121 he succeeded him. As duke he was a nominal vassal of the Princes of Capua, to whom he was related.
Marinus II was the son of Docibilis II of Gaeta and Orania of Naples. He was made dux of Fondi by his father and his elder brother John II recognised this title. After his brother Gregory, who succeeded John, died, Marinus succeeded to the duchy of Gaeta and gave Fondi to his son Marinus. He was succeeded by his son John III and is the father of the Caetani family.
John IV was the mostly absentee duke of Naples from 997 to after 1002. He was the son and successor of Sergius III. John IV originally recognised the suzerainty of the Byzantine Emperor.
Leo I, sometimes called the Usurper, was the regent of the Duchy of Gaeta from 1017 until 1024. He was a younger son of Duke John III and Duchess Emilia. After the death of his brother, John IV in 1008, his mother took over the regency for her grandson, Leo's nephew, John V. Leo challenged his mother for the regency, successfully displacing her by 1017.
Leo II was the Duke of Gaeta briefly in early 1042. He was the last duke of the native Docibilan family. His father was the magnificus Docibilis, a grandson of Duke Gregory. His brother, Hugh, was the count of Suio.
John III was the longest-reigning Duke of Naples (928–968). He was the son and successor of Marinus I.
John IV was the eldest son of John III of Gaeta and Emilia. He was appointed co-duke in 991 while still young. John succeeded his father in 1008 or 1009 and ruled for a brief four years.
Sergius VI was the magister militum and duke of Naples from 1077 to his death. He was the son of the Neapolitan senator John, and succeeded his uncle, John's elder brother, Sergius V. His sister Inmilgia married Duke Landulf of Gaeta. His reign is very obscure because of the slight documentary evidence.
Marinus II was the Duke of Naples from 968 to his death. He was the son and successor of John III and brought Naples back into the Byzantine fold, receiving the title eminentissimus consul et dux, atque imperialis anthipatus patricius. In 970, Marinus did homage for his duchy to the Byzantine patrician Eugene after the imprisonment of Pandulf Ironhead. He then participated in the siege of Capua. He devastated the surrounding countryside and took an enormous booty before an army of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor forced the Greeks to retreat. In 974, Marinus allied with Manso I of Amalfi and Landulf of Conza to depose Gisulf I of Salerno. They were defeated, however, by the intervention of Pandulf Ironhead. On 4 November 981, the Emperor Otto II was in Naples, probably with the permission of Marinus, who was moving away from his pro-Byzantine policy. He was succeeded by his son Sergius III.
Gregory was the Duke of Gaeta from 963 until his death. He was the second son of Docibilis II of Gaeta and his wife Orania. He succeeded his brother John II, who had left only daughters. Gregory rapidly depleted the publicum of the Duchy of Gaeta by doling it out to family members as grants. Gregory disappears from the records in 964 and was succeeded by his younger brother Marinus of Fondi over the heads of his three sons. It is possible that there was an internal power struggle between factions of the Docibilan family and that Gregory was forced out. On the other hand, perhaps he died and his sons fought a losing battle for their inheritance to Gaeta.
Jonathan, a member of a cadet branch of the Drengot family, was the Duke of Gaeta from 1113 until his death. He is known from the Codex Caietanus to have been in the fourth year of his minority in 1116 and the seventh of his rule in 1119. There are three theories of his paternity. He may have been the son of Count Jonathan I of Carinola or his grandson by an unnamed son, or else the grandson of Count Bartholomew of Carinola. He was under the regency of his cousin or uncle, Count Richard of Carinola.
Hugh was the Count of Suio in the Duchy of Gaeta. He was probably a son of Docibilis magnificus, who in turn was probably a son of Landolf, son of Gregory, Duke of Gaeta, and Landolf's mistress Polyssena (Pulessene). He was a brother of Duke Leo II of Gaeta.
Bernard was the Bishop of Gaeta for fifty years from his appointment in 997 until his death. He was a member of the Docibilan dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Gaeta from 867 to 1032. During his long episcopate he achieved the economic security of his see in the face of labour difficulties, annexed the diocese of Traetto to his own in or soon after 999, and witnessed the decline and replacement of his family in Gaeta.
References
- 1 2 Skinner 1995, Figure 1.1.
