Manso II the Blind [1] was the duke of Amalfi on three separate occasions: from 1028 to 1029, from 1034 to 1038, and from 1043 to 1052. He was the second son of Sergius II [2] and Maria, sister of Pandulf IV of Capua. [3] His whole ducal career consisted of wars with his brother, John II, over the throne. The Chronicon Amalfitanum (c. 1300) is an important source for his reign.
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, competing with northern European cities.
Sergius II was the Patrician and Duke of Amalfi, the son and successor of John I, who co-reigned with his father until the latter's death in 1007.
Pandulf IV was the Prince of Capua on three separate occasions.
In 1028, he and his mother seized the throne, while Sergius and John fled to Constantinople. This was probably at the instigation of his uncle Pandulf. In 1029, John, but not Sergius, returned and reasserted his authority, deposing Manso and Maria. In April or May 1034, John was forced to flee Amalfi again for Naples and Manso and Maria retook the throne with the support of Pandulf. Maria took the titles ducissa et patricissa, but Manso received no titles from Byzantium: clearly, they had aligned themselves with the Lombards and not the Greeks.
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), of the Byzantine Empire, of the brief Crusader state known as the Latin Empire (1204–1261) and of the Ottoman Empire (1453–1923). In 1923 the capital of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, was moved to Ankara and the name Constantinople was officially changed to Istanbul. The city was located in what is now the European side and the core of modern Istanbul.
Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto, surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery. The town of Amalfi was the capital of the maritime republic known as the Duchy of Amalfi, an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200.
Naples is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy after Rome and Milan. In 2017, around 967,069 people lived within the city's administrative limits while its province-level municipality has a population of 3,115,320 residents. Its continuously built-up metropolitan area is the second or third largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the most densely populated cities in Europe.
In 1038, the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II deposed Pandulf and John was able to return to Amalfi. He blinded Manso and exiled him to the island of Sirenuse, with the support of Maria, whom he allowed to co-reign. The cruelty of this act turned the citizenry against the duke and duchess and, in April 1039, they ousted John and Maria and accepted Guaimar IV of Salerno as duke. Guaimar appointed Manso to act as duke in 1040 or 1043, under Salernitan suzerainty. Manso named his son after Guaimar and appointed him co-duke in 1047. In 1052, the Amalfitans, who loved Manso, rebelled nevertheless over the burden of Salernitan taxation. John was able to seize power again.
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in Western and Central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. The largest territory of the empire after 962 was the Kingdom of Germany, though it also came to include the neighboring Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, the Kingdom of Italy, and numerous other territories.
The Sirenusas, also known as the Gallos, are an archipelago of little islands off the Amalfi Coast of Italy between Isle of Capri and 6 km (4 mi) southwest of Province of Salerno's Positano, to which it is administratively attached. They are part of the Campanian Archipelago. The name, Sirenuse, is a reference to the mythological sirens said to have lived there.
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."
In addition to his son Guaimar, he had a son named Manso, who in turn had a son named Manso, who married a Gaitelgrima and had a son named John. [4] Either one of these may be the viceduke Manso known only from coins of the period. He may have had a daughter who married Ranulf Drengot. [5]
Guaimar II was the Duke of Amalfi, ruling alongside his father, Manso II, and under the suzerainty of his namesake, Guaimar IV of Salerno, from 1047, when his father first associated him, to his and his father's deposition in 1052 by his uncle, John II, after the assassination of the Prince of Salerno.
Manso was a Lombard viceduke (vicedux) who ruled the Duchy of Amalfi during the reign of Roger Borsa, the Norman Duke of Apulia. He is known only from his coins: large, copper follari bearing the inscription MANSO VICEDUX on the reverse. Irregular and poor in quality, mostly overstrikes of Salernitan coins, they were originally attributed to Manso of Salerno (981–83).
