Sources
- Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LXIII Labroca – Laterza. Rome, 2004.
Landulf V (died September 1033) 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.
In 999, Otto III visited the shrine of Saint Michael the Archangel at Monte Gargano. On his return through Benevento, he signed a diploma in favor of the monastery of Santa Sofia on 11 March. S. Sofia was the familial foundation of Landulf's line and probably acted as a sort of dynastic mausoleum. For reasons unknown, Otto and the Beneventan princes had a falling-out in 1000, possibly over the relics of Saint Bartholomew, patron saint of Benevento, to whom Otto had constructed a new church on the Isola Tiberina—San Bartolomeo all'Isola—just recently. According to the Annales Beneventani , Otto rex cum magno exercitu obsedit Benevento: "King Otto with a large army besieged Benevento." Nothing, however, came of it, except perhaps the yielding of certain relics (the skin of Bartholomew?).
In 1003, a rebellion led by Adelfer, Count of Avellino, ousted Landulf V and his father from Benevento. The princes did not remain exiled for long, however. In 1005, they are ruling from their capital again. The revolt was a bad sign, though, as civil unrest was rising in the principality.
He associated his son Pandulf III with the rule of Benevento in roughly 1012. Two years later, the elder Pandulf died, leaving Landulf sole prince with his son. Immediately after the death, the citizens of Benevento led a revolt against Landulf and Pandulf III. The rebellion, unlike the previous one of Adelfer, failed to dislodge the princes from power. However, the citizens did force concessions of authority to themselves and the city's aristocracy. The Annales say facta est communitas prima: "the first commune is made."
Landulf was forced to make submission to the Byzantine Empire, whose Italian catepan Boioannes had rebuilt the fortified city of Troia nearby. In 1022, the Emperor Henry II joined his army with two other armies under Poppo of Aquileia and Pilgrim of Cologne at Benevento, which submitted after a short siege. From there they marched on Troia, but failed to take it. After showing submission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Landulf is not mentioned in records until his death in September 1033. He was succeeded by his son Pandulf III. His other son, Atenulf, as later elected leader of the Normans in southern Italy.
Even more than his father's reign, Landulf's saw the decline of the principality. Forced to make submission to both Byzantium and then Henry II, Benevento could hardly claim even de facto independence any longer. Furthermore, the lengthy period (47 years) of his rule saw the beginnings of a Byzantine resurgence in Apulia and the Lombard response. Benevento did its best to be on the winning side, but only offered the anti-Greek rebels clandestine support. By his death, the once-great principality had dwindled territorially to little more than the city and its surrounding countryside.
Year 969 (CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th year of the 10th century, and the 10th and last year of the 960s decade.
Year 968 (CMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Otto II, called the Red, was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.
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.
Pandulf II was the prince of Salerno (981), the second of such princes of the family of the princes of Capua. He was originally appointed heir to the childless Gisulf I of Salerno, who had been reinstated on his throne by Pandulf's father, Pandulf Ironhead. On the former's death in 977, he succeeded him as co-prince of Salerno with his father. On the latter's death in March 981, the Ironhead's great principality was divided such that he inherited only Salerno, while Capua-Benevento went to his elder brother Landulf IV.
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.
Landulf III was Prince of Capua and Benevento from 959 as co-prince with his father, Landulf II, and brother Pandulf Ironhead. In 961, he would be co-prince with only his brother after the death of his father. His mother was Yvantia.
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.
Landulf VI 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.
John III was the longest-reigning Duke of Naples (928–968). He was the son and successor of Marinus I.
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.
Aloara of Capua, was a princess consort of Capua from the 960s to 981, and then co-regent of Capua jointly with her son from 982 until 992. She was said to have governed her states with great ability.
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.
Henry II, also known as Saint Henry the Exuberant, Obl. S. B., was Holy Roman Emperor from 1014. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler of the Ottonian line. As Duke of Bavaria, appointed in 995, Henry became King of the Romans following the sudden death of his second cousin, Emperor Otto III in 1002, was made King of Italy in 1004, and crowned emperor by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014.
