List of Dukes and Princes of Benevento

Last updated October 21, 2019

This is a list of the Dukes and Princes of Benevento .

The Duchy of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian peninsula, centered on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Lombard dukes ruled Benevento from 571 to 1077, when it was conquered by the Normans for 4 years before being 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, King of the Lombards and the kings from Liutprand on was the duchy closely tied to the kingdom. After the fall of the kingdom, however, alone of Lombard territories it remained as a rump state, and maintained its de facto independence for nearly three hundred years, though it was divided after 849.

Dukes of Benevento

571–591 Zotto
591–641 Arechis I
641–642 Aiulf I ^[1]
642–647 Radoald ^[2]
647–662 Grimoald I (then King of the Lombards, 662–671)^[2]
662–687 Romoald I ^[2]
687–689 Grimoald II ^[2]
689–706 Gisulf I ^[2]
706–730 Romoald II ^[2]
730–732 Audelais ^[3]
733–739 Gregory ^[4]
739–742 Godescalc ^[5]^[6]
742–751 Gisulf II ^[2]
751–758 Liutprand ^[2]
758–774 Arechis II (tried to become king in 774)^[2]

Zotto was the military leader of the Lombards in the Mezzogiorno. He is generally considered the founder of the Duchy of Benevento in 571 and its first duke : “…Fuit autem primus Langobardorum dux in Benevento nomine Zotto, qui in ea principatus est per curricula viginti annorum…”.

Arechis I was the second duke of Benevento from 591 to his death in 641, a reign of half a century. He was from Friuli and was a relative of the dukes there, maybe a nephew of Zotto, his predecessor. He was appointed by King Agilulf in the spring of 591, after Zotto's death. He was practically independent because his duchy was separated from northern Italy by a stretch of Byzantine territory.

Aiulf I was the duke of Benevento from 641 to his death in 646 as the son and successor of Arechis I. However, he was mentally unstable and his adoptive brothers Radoald and Grimoald were regents for him. In 646, Slavic plunderers landed near Siponto on the Adriatic. Aiulf personally led his forces against the intruders, but his horse fell into a pit dug by the Slavs around their camp and he was surrounded and killed. He was succeeded by his brother Radoald.

Princes of Benevento

Also princes of Capua from 900 to 981.

774–787 Arechis II (independent of any royal authority)
787–806 Grimoald III
806–817 Grimoald IV
817–832 Sico I
832–839 Sicard
839–851 Radelchis I
851–854 Radelgar
854–878 Adelchis
878–881 Waifer
881–884 Radelchis II (deposed)
884–890 Aiulf II
890–891 Orso
891–895 To the Byzantines.
895–897 Guy (also Duke of Spoleto d.898)
- 897 Peter, Bishop of Benevento and Regent
897–900 Radelchis II (restored)

Arechis II was a Duke of Benevento, in Southern Italy. He sought to expand the Beneventos' influence into areas of Italy that were still under Byzantine control, but he also had to defend against Charlemagne, who had conquered northern Italy.

Grimoald III was the Lombard Prince of Benevento from 788 until his own death. He was the second son of Arechis II and Adelperga. In 787, he and his elder brother Romoald were sent as hostages to Charlemagne who had descended the Italian peninsula as far as Salerno to receive the submission of Benevento. In return for peace, Arechis recognised Charlemagne's suzerainty and handed Grimoald over as a hostage.

Grimoald IV, son of Ermenrih, called Falco, was the Lombard Prince of Benevento from 806 until his death. He was a thesaurarius or stolesayz/stoleseyz before becoming prince on the death of Grimoald III, over Grimoald's own son, Ilderic, another stoleseyz.

House of Capua

900–910 Atenulf I the Great
- 901–910 Landulf I Antipater, co-ruler
910–943 Landulf I Antipater, co-ruled from 901 (see directly above)
- 911–940 Atenulf II, co-ruler
  - 940 Landulf, co-ruler
- 933–943 Atenulf III Carinola, co-ruler
- 940–943 Landulf II the Red, co-ruler (perhaps from 939)
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.
943–961 Landulf II the Red, co-ruled from 940 (see above)
- 943–961 Pandulf I Ironhead, co-ruler
- 959–961 Landulf III, co-ruler
Landulf III was Prince of Capua and Benevento from 959 as co-prince with his father, Landulf II and brother Pandulf Ironhead, and from 961 only with his brother. His mother was Yvantia.
961–968 Landulf III, co-ruling with his brother (perhaps to 969, see directly below), also co-ruled from 959 (see directly above)
961–981 Pandulf I Ironhead, co-ruling with his brother (see directly above), also co-ruled from 943 (see above), also duke of Spoleto (from 967), Salerno (from 978), and Capua (from 961)
- 968–981 Landulf IV, co-ruler, briefly sole duke in 981, then duke of Capua (d.993)
981–1014 Pandulf II
- 987–1014 Landulf V, co-ruler
1014–1033 Landulf V, co-ruled from 987 (see directly above, d.1053)
- 1012–1033 Pandulf III, co-ruler (d.1059)
1033–1050 Pandulf III, co-ruled from 1012 (see directly above, d.1060)
- 1038–1050 Landulf VI, co-ruler (d.1077)

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.

Atenulf II was the younger brother of Prince Landulf I of Benevento, who associated him with the government in June 910 or 911.

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.

In 1050, the Lombard co-princes were expelled from the city by the discontented citizenry. In 1051, the city was given to the pope. In 1053, the Normans who had occupied the duchy itself since 1047 (when the Emperor Henry III gave permission to Humphrey of Hauteville) ceded it to the Pope with whom they had recently made a truce.

Princes of Benevento under Papal Suzerainty

The pope appointed his own rector, but the citizens invited the old princes back and, by 1055, they were ruling again; as vassals of the pope, however.

1053–1054 Rudolf, rector
1054–1059 Pandulf III (again)
1054–1077 Landulf VI, co-ruled from 1038
1056–1074 Pandulf IV

Norman Prince of Benevento

1078–1081 Robert Guiscard

Guiscard returned it to the Pope, but no new Beneventan prince or dukes were named until the 19th century.

Prince of Benevento under Napoleon

1806–1815 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

Related Research Articles

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.

Richard Drengot was the count of Aversa (1049–1078), prince of Capua and duke of Gaeta (1064–1078).

Pandulf II the Old was the prince of Benevento from 981 and prince of Capua from 1008 or 1009 to his death, the son of Landulf III who was co-prince between 959 and 968. Pandulf was first associated as co-prince in 977.

Atenulf I, called the Great, was the prince of Capua from 7 January 887 and of Benevento from 899, when he conquered that principality. He also used the title princeps gentis Langobardorum: "prince of the Lombard people," an echo of the title used by the earliest prince of Benevento following the collapse of Lombard cohesion in 774.

Atenulf III, called Atenulf of Carinola, was the co-prince of Capua and Benevento from 933, when his father, Landulf I, and uncle, Atenulf II, made him so. His younger brother Landulf the Red succeeded co-prince Atenulf in 939 or 940. When the elder Landulf died on 10 April 943, the younger Landulf removed his elder brother Atenulf to Benevento and his uncle Atenulf's son Landulf to Capua. Fearing for their lives, the two fled to Guaimar II of Salerno and Landulf the Red became sole prince.

Landulf VII, also numbered Landulf IV or V, called Landolfo di Sant'Agata, was the prince of Capua from 1000 to his death. He was the second son of Landulf III of Benevento, who was only a co-ruler. Thus, he was easily removed from the succession on his father's death. His brother Pandulf eventually succeeded in becoming Prince of Benevento.

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 1012 or thereabouts to 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 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.

The Lombard Principality of Salerno was a South Italian state, formed in 851 out of the Principality of Benevento after a decade-long civil war.

The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state centred on Capua in Southern Italy, usually de facto independent, but under the varying suzerainty of Western and Eastern Roman Empires. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno.

Aloara of Capua, was a Princess regnant 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.

References

↑ Andrea Bedina, "Grimoaldo, re dei Longobardi", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 59 (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2003).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wickham (1981), 224–25.
↑ Grierson and Blackburn (1986), 68, give a date of 731.
↑ Wickham (1981), 44.
↑ Grierson and Blackburn (1986), 68.
↑ Hallenbeck (1982), 39–40, says 740–41.

Sources

Grierson, Philip and Mark Blackburn, edd. Medieval European Coinage, 1: The Early Middle Ages (5th–10th Centuries). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Hallenbeck, Jan T. "Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 72, 4 (1982): 1–186.
Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000. London: Macmillan, 1981.

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[Bedina-1] Andrea Bedina, "Grimoaldo, re dei Longobardi", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 59 (Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2003).

[Wickham-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wickham (1981), 224–25.

[3] Grierson and Blackburn (1986), 68, give a date of 731.

[4] Wickham (1981), 44.

[5] Grierson and Blackburn (1986), 68.

[6] Hallenbeck (1982), 39–40, says 740–41.