Landulf VI (died 27 November 1077) was the last Lombard prince of Benevento. Unlike his predecessors, he never had a chance to rule alone and independent. The principality lost its independence in 1051, at which point Landulf was only co-ruling with his father, Pandulf III.
Landulf was the eldest son of Pandulf III and he was first made co-prince in August or September 1038.[1] In 1041, it was probably his brother Atenulf who led the rebellion because he was not made co-ruler as well. The revolt failed and Atenulf fled to the Normans, where he was elected their leader as princeps.
In 1047, Emperor Henry III came down to secure his authority in the Mezzogiorno. Empress Agnes visited Monte Gargano as a pilgrim and returned via Benevento, where she was accepted, but her husband denied. Henry III, angry at being denied, immediately laid siege to the city and Pope Clement II excommunicated Landulf and Pandulf and the citizenry. The siege was eventually lifted, however, the disrespect shown the imperial family and the church coupled with the principality's decline caused Landulf's uncle, Daufer, to flee the city and take refuge with Guaimar IV of Salerno, who housed the religious youth in La Cava. Landulf personally travelled to Salerno to meet with Guaimar and negotiate the return of Daufer. Daufer was returned with the promise that his choice of a monastic vocation would be respected.
Beneventan matters came to a head in 1050, when Pope Leo IX went on a pilgrimage to Monte Gargano and reaffirmed the excommunication of the princes. The citizens turned on them and threw them out. The citizens sent an embassy to the pope in Rome offered to put their city under him. In April 1051, CardinalHumbert of Silva Candida and Domenic, Patriarch of Grado, entered Benevento to receive the city on the pope's behalf. On 5 July, the pope entered his new city on behalf of himself and the emperor.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Civitate in 1053, in which the pope was imprisoned in Benevento,[2] the city invited Pandulf and Landulf back (sometime between June 1053 and March 1054). They returned by 1055 and ruled as vassals of the pope. In 1056, Landulf associated his son Pandulf IV. Probably in 1059, the elder Pandulf abdicated to the monastery of S. Sofia, leaving Landulf and Pandulf IV sole princes.
Landulf only appears scarcely in sources thereafter. In 1065, he was admonished by Pope Alexander II "that the conversion of Jews is not to be obtained by force."[3] He was present on 1 October 1071 at the consecration of the Abbey of Monte Cassino. In August 1073, he swore fealty to Pope Gregory VII, his overlord, and promised to respect the rights of the citizens of Benevento. Gregory even began residing from time to time in Landulf's palace at Benevento, which Amatus calls lo plus grand palaiz ("the largest palace"). Landulf does not appear again in the chronicles and, after his son died in battle in 1074, died on 27 November 1077.[4] With him leaving no clear successor of his dynasty, the principality of Benevento came to an end.
Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LXIII Labroca – Laterza. Rome, 2004.
Gregorovius, Ferdinand. Rome in the Middle Ages Vol. IV Part 2. trans. Annie Hamilton. 1905.
Simonsohn, Shlomo (1988). The Apostolic See and the Jews, Documents: 492-1404. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
Cowdrey, H.E.J. (1983). The age of Abbot Desiderius: Montecassino, the Papacy, and the Normans in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries. Clarendon Press.
Grierson, Philip; Blackburn, Mark A. S. (1986). Medieval European Coinage: With a Catalogue of the Coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Vol.I: The early Middle Ages, 5th-10th centuries. Cambridge University Press.
The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian Peninsula that was centred on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Lombard dukes ruled Benevento from 571 to 1077, when it was conquered by the Normans for four years before it was given to the Pope. Being cut off from the rest of the Lombard possessions by the papal Duchy of Rome, Benevento was practically independent from the start. Only during the reigns of Grimoald and the kings from Liutprand on was the duchy closely tied to the Kingdom of the Lombards. After the fall of the kingdom in 774, the duchy became the sole Lombard territory which continued to exist as a rump state, maintaining its de facto independence for nearly 300 years, although it was divided after 849. Benevento dwindled in size in the early 11th century, and was completely captured by the Norman Robert Guiscard in 1053.
Guaimar IV was Prince of Salerno (1027–1052), Duke of Amalfi (1039–1052), Duke of Gaeta (1040–1041), and Prince of Capua (1038–1047) in Southern Italy over the period from 1027 to 1052. From 1041 to 1052 the Duke of Napoli was his vassal. He was an important figure in the final phase of Byzantine authority in the Mezzogiorno and the commencement of Norman power. He was, according to Amatus of Montecassino, "more courageous than his father, more generous and more courteous; indeed he possessed all the qualities a layman should have—except that he took an excessive delight in women."
Pandulf I Ironhead was the Prince of Benevento and Capua from 943 until his death. He was made Duke of Spoleto and Camerino in 967 and succeeded as Prince of Salerno in 977 or 978. He was an important nobleman in the fight with the Byzantines and Saracens for control of the Mezzogiorno in the centuries after the collapse of Lombard and Carolingian authority on the Italian Peninsula. He established himself over almost the whole of the southern half of Italia before his death in March 981.
Pandulf II the Old was the prince of Benevento from 981 and prince of Capua from 1008 or 1009 to his death, and was the son of Landulf III who was co-prince between 959 and 968. Pandulf was first associated as co-prince in 977.
Guaimar II was the Lombard prince of Salerno from 901, when his father retired to a monastery, to his death. His father was Guaimar I and his mother was Itta. He was associated with his father in the principality from 893. He was responsible for the rise of the principality: he restored the princely palace, built the palace church of San Pietro a campanile, and restored gold coinage.
Landulf I, sometimes called Antipater, was a Lombard nobleman and the Prince of Benevento and of Capua from 12 January 901, when his father, Atenulf I, prince of Capua and conqueror of Benevento, associated his with him in power.
Landulf II, called the Red, was the Lombard prince of Benevento and prince of Capua from 939 or 940, when his father, Landulf I, first associated him with the government. His mother was Gemma, daughter of Athanasius of Naples. He may have been associated as early as 933, when his elder brother, Atenulf III, was made co-regent. His uncle Atenulf II died in 940 and it is likely that Landulf served as a replacement. Landulf married Yvantia on an unknown date.
Landulf IV was the prince of Capua and Benevento from 968, when he was associated with his father, Pandulf Ironhead, and prince of Salerno associated with his father from 977 or 978. In 968, his uncle Landulf III died, which lead to his rise, as Pandulf ignored the rights of Landulf II's son Pandulf II, his nephew, and instead associated his own son with the government.
Atenulf was the son of Prince Landulf V of Benevento and brother of Prince Pandulf III. In 1040, Benevento still had the prestige of being the first of the independent Lombard principalities of the Mezzogiorno. So, when the Lombard Arduin, topoterites of Melfi, and his Norman mercenaries rebelled against Byzantine authority, they elected the son of Pandulf as their leader, calling him "prince of Benevento."
Landulf V was the prince of Benevento from May 987, when he was first associated with his father Pandulf II, to his death. He was chief prince from his father's death in 1014.
Pandulf III was the prince of Benevento in the Mezzogiorno in medieval Italy, first as co-ruler with his father, Landulf V, and grandfather, Pandulf II, from between 1012 and 1014, when the elder Pandulf died. He co-ruled with his father until his death in 1033. Thereafter he was the primary ruler until his abdication in 1059.
The Principality of Salerno was a medieval Southern Italian state, formed in 851 out of the Principality of Benevento after a decade-long civil war. It was centred on the port city of Salerno. Although it owed allegiance at its foundation to the Carolingian emperor, it was de facto independent throughout its history and alternated its allegiance between the Carolingians and their successors in the West and the Byzantine emperors in the east.
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state centred on Capua in Southern Italy. Towards the end of the 10th century the Principality reached its apogee, occupying most of the Terra di Lavoro area. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno.
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1194, involving many battles and independent conquerors.
The Landulfids or Atenulfings were a noble family of Lombardic origin in the ninth through eleventh centuries. They were descended from Landulf I of Capua, whose own ancestry is unknown and who died in 843. The dynasty produced a line of princes which ruled most of southern Italy at one time or another and even one pope, Victor III.
Landulf of Conza, a Lombard nobleman, was briefly Prince of Benevento in 940 and then briefly Prince of Salerno in 973. The son of Atenulf II of Benevento, Landulf ruled on his father's death (940) as co-prince with his uncle, Landulf I, who soon sent him into exile. He initially took refuge at the court of Marinus II of Naples, from where he sought shelter in Salerno through his sister, Gaitelgrima, the second wife of Prince Guaimar II of Salerno. This he received and he was soon appointed gastald of Conza, while his sons—Landenulf, Landulf, Indulf, and Guaimar—were invested with land in Salerno. The Chronicon Salernitanum, which is the most important source for Landulf's life, names the counties of Marsi, Sarno, and Lauro as those of Guaimar, Indulf, and Landenulf, respectively, but does not name a county for Landulf.
Pandulf or Paldolf was the first Lombard lord (dominus) of Capaccio in the Principality of Salerno.
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