List of princes of Salerno

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The Principality of Salerno in Italy around 1000 Italy 1000 AD.svg
The Principality of Salerno in Italy around 1000

This page is a list of the rulers of the Principality of Salerno .

Contents

When Prince Sicard of Benevento was assassinated by Radelchis in 839, the people of Salerno promptly proclaimed his brother, Siconulf, prince. War raged between Radelchis and Siconulf until Emperor Louis II came down and forced a peace in 851, confirming Siconulf as prince of Salerno. The chronology is very confusing from then on until the assassination of Adhemar, when a new dynasty took the throne.

The Principality of Salerno reached its Zenit under Guaimar IV, who ruled all continental southern Italy between 1039 amnd 1048, expelling for the first time since the fall of the western Roman empire the Bizantines from the italian peninsula.

Salerno was besieged by the Normans of Robert Guiscard and Prince Richard I of Capua until it fell on 13 December 1076. Prince Gisulf II surrendered the next year and the principality, the final Lombard state in Italy, fell. Salerno became the capital of Guiscard's duchy of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.

"Prince of Salerno" was also a title created by Charles I of Naples (reigned 1266-1285) for his son, later Charles II of Naples. It was regularly used for the heirs of the Kings of Naples and later the Two Sicilies. In the fourteenth century, most of the province of Salerno became the territory of the Princes of Sanseverino.

List

The Principality of Salerno as it existed in Guaimar IV's time. Guaimar extended his suzerainty over the Duchy of Amalfi and Principality of Capua and also over all continental Southern Italy, while the Duchy of Naples was a vassal for some years. South Italy AD 1039-1047-es.svg
The Principality of Salerno as it existed in Guaimar IV's time. Guaimar extended his suzerainty over the Duchy of Amalfi and Principality of Capua and also over all continental Southern Italy, while the Duchy of Naples was a vassal for some years.

Notes

  1. Sico II is so numbered to distinguish him from Prince Sico I of Benevento.
  2. Also ruled Benevento and Capua (from 961) and Spoleto (from 967).
  3. He had been named Gisulf I's heir in 973.
  4. Also ruled Amalfi (966–1004).
  5. Also ruled Amalfi (1004–07).
  6. In the 19th century, Michelangelo Schipa, relying on an 11th-century charter mis-dated to 917, inserted a fifth prince named Guaimar into the list, suggesting this "Guaimar III" was a son of Guaimar II. This necessitated re-numbering Guaimar III as "Guaimar IV" and the actual Guaimar IV as "Guaimar V". [1]
  7. Also ruled Amalfi (1039–43), Gaeta (1040–41) and Capua (1038–47) .
  8. Also ruled Amalfi (1088–89).

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchy of Benevento</span> Lombard state in present-day southern Italy from 577 to 1053

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guaimar IV of Salerno</span> 11th-century Lombard prince

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. 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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandulf Ironhead</span>

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. He was an ancestor of Sancho I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gisulf II of Salerno</span>

Gisulf II was the last Lombard prince of Salerno (1052–1077).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siconulf of Salerno</span> 9th-century Italian prince

Siconulf was the first prince of Salerno, the brother of Sicard, prince of Benevento (832–839), who was assassinated by Radelchis. In response to Sicard's murder, the people of Salerno proclaimed Siconulf prince in opposition to Radelchis. At the time Radelchis was holding Siconulf prisoner in Taranto. A group of people from the cities of Salerno and Amalfi went there in disguise as Amalfian merchants and rescued Siconulf from prison, bringing him to Salerno.

Gaitelgrima is a Lombard feminine name.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sicard of Benevento</span> 9th-century Italian prince

Sicard was the Prince of Benevento from 832. He was the last prince of a united Benevento which covered most of the Mezzogiorno. On his death, the principality descended into civil war which split it permanently. He was the son and successor of the Spoletan Sico.

Gisulf I was the eldest son of Guaimar II, Lombard Prince of Salerno, and his second wife Gaitelgrima. He was associated with his father as ruler in 943 and succeeded him on his death in 952. He took to using the title Langobardorum gentis princeps, "prince of the people of the Lombards". He was originally under the regency of his mother and Prisco (Priscus), treasurer and count of the palace.

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.

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.

Lando I was the count of Capua from 843. He was the eldest son and successor of Landulf the Old. Like his father, he supported Siconulf against Radelchis in the civil war dividing the Principality of Benevento in the 840s.

John II was the duke of Amalfi from 1029 to 1069 with multiple interruptions. He was the son of Sergius II and Maria, sister of Pandulf IV of Capua. He was the last significant duke of Amalfi before the Norman conquest of 1073.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Principality of Salerno</span> Medieval duchy in southern Italy spanning the 9th - 11th Century

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Principality of Capua</span> Medieval State

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman conquest of southern Italy</span> Historical event in the European Middle Ages

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.

Pandulf III was briefly the Prince of Salerno from around 3 to 10 June 1052. He was the eldest of four brothers of Gemma, wife of Prince Guaimar IV. He seized the throne in a coup d'état, when he and his brother assassinated Guaimar. He reigned for only a week before he was forced to step down and was promptly murdered.

References

  1. Graham A. Loud (2000), The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Northern Conquest, Taylor and Francis, p. 61, n. 3.