Ranulf II was the son of Robert, count of Alife and Caiazzo. and Gaitelgrima. His grandfather was Ranulf I of Caiazzo, a brother of Prince Richard I of Capua. His great-grandfather was Asclettin, count of Acerenza. Asclettin was a brother of the Ranulf Drengot, the first Norman fiefholder in Italy. As the third Ranulf in his family, Ranulf of Alife is sometimes called "Ranulf III".
Rise to influence
In July 1127, Duke William II of Apulia died.[1] Count Roger II of Sicily believed that the duchy passed to him. However, this was opposed by many of the largely Norman nobility on the mainland, and in this they had the support of Pope Honorius II. A rallying-point for this opposition might have been the only other independent prince in southern Italy, Count Jordan of Ariano, but he also died on 12 August 1127. His heir was the short-lived Prince Jordan II but, on his death on 19 December, his son Robert II of Capua became Prince.[2] His leading lord was Ranulf of Alife.
In December, Honorius visited Capua, a longtime papal ally, and there organised the resistance to Roger's claim, recruiting both Ranulf and Robert to his cause. He promised them that all who took part in the campaign against Roger would earn remission of their sins.[3] Robert's leadership was less than stellar and Ranulf was soon the effective military leader of the opposition. When Roger arrived on the peninsula with an army, Ranulf tried to organise resistance, especially in Troia, but gave up when Roger threatened to invade his lands.[4] Eventually, the rebels' negotiations with Roger led to a truce by which Honorius invested Roger as Duke of Apulia and Calabria in August 1128.
Ranulf appeared loyal to Roger after his coronation as King of Sicily on 30 December 1130. In 1131, he and Robert took a force of 200 knights at Roger's bequest to Rome in a show of force in support of Antipope Anacletus II. However, while Ranulf was away at Rome, his wife, Matilda, along with her son, fled to her brother Roger in Salerno alleging marital cruelty. Roger summoned Ranulf to court but he refused to appear.[5] Roger was particularly concerned with Ranulf thinking he could carry on much as he had always done in or near his own power-base.[5] Roger was forced by his vassal's contumacy and perfidy to annex the county of Avellino from Richard, Ranulf's brother. Ranulf demanded the restitution of both wife and comital title. Both were denied and Ranulf left Rome, against orders. Roger gave him the opportunity to submit to a formal proceeding at Salerno, but Ranulf instead went to Robert, who also left Rome, and the two began planning another insurrection.
Rebel leader
Southern Italy in 1112. Numerous smaller city-states, usually under the suzerainty or vassalage of the larger states, are not shown. The two great battles of Ranulf's generalship are shown: Rignano and Nocera, indicated by crossed sabres.
Soon most of the peninsular baronage was behind the rebel leaders. Roger II was distracted temporarily by a rebellion in Apulia, but with the surrender of Grimoald, Prince of Bari, he could turn to face the Capuan renegades. They took Benevento, an ally of both pope and king, and turned towards Roger's royal army. Roger moved to besiege Nocera, but was met by the rebel army: Robert on the left, Ranulf on the right. On 24 July, the armies met at the Battle of Nocera. The rebels were victorious and Roger fled.
A large army under Lothair of Germany was expected, but instead the Emperor left Italy after his coronation, despite Ranulf's attendance. Therefore, that year, 1133, Roger was able to return to the peninsula from his stronghold in Sicily and reverse many of the rebel successes. But new revolts opened up. Ranulf supported Tancred of Conversano with men under Roger of Plenco, but otherwise, kept a lower profile, awaiting reinforcements from Pisa and Genoa. Ranulf failed to deliver Nocera from a siege and Robert of Capua fled north. By June 1134, Ranulf's own supporters had melted away and he was forced to make peace with the king. According to Alexander of Telese, the two kissed and embraced such that "those that were present were seen to be shedding tears for very joy." Ranulf's gains since the outbreak of rebellion were taken back, but his wife and son returned to him amicably (his cruelty being apparently not so egregious).
In 1135, a Pisan fleet with Robert of Capua laid anchor in Naples. With rumours of Roger's death circulating, Ranulf joined Robert and Duke Sergius VII of Naples in that city and prepared for a siege.
In 1136, Lothair II and the duke of Bavaria, Henry the Proud, descended the peninsula to support the three rebels. Ranulf, with Robert and Henry, took a large contingent of troops to besiege the peninsular capital of the kingdom, Salerno. Salerno surrendered and the large army of Germans and Normans marched to the very south of Apulia. Having thus left most of southern Italy under his control, Lothair decided to appoint a new duke of Apulia and since Robert and Sergius were already powerful potentates, Ranulf was raised to that position. Lothair claimed the right to investiture, but so did Pope Innocent II; the former on the grounds that Emperor Henry III had appointed Drogo of Hauteville in 1047 and the latter on the grounds that Pope Nicholas II had raised Robert Guiscard to ducal status in 1059. Together, pope and emperor handed power to Ranulf in Salerno and the Germans departed for home, leaving Ranulf to defend his hard-won duchy. Ranulf accompanied the emperor as far as Aquino and received 800 knights for his fight.
Dukedom and death
On 30 October 1137, at the Battle of Rignano, Ranulf met his chief foe, Roger's son Roger, whom the king had named as Duke of Apulia in 1134. Though the younger Roger fought valiantly, the elder fled the field and their ally, Sergius VII of Naples, died in the fray. Rignano was the second great victory of Ranulf over Roger (after Nocera), but it, like the first, had no lasting effect. Roger's campaign of 1138 was a failure and Ranulf for a moment appeared secure in his title, even without Salerno. However, Ranulf fell sick with fever at Troia, his capital, and died on 30 April 1139. He was buried in the cathedral of that city, whence Roger exhumed him and threw him in a ditch, only to later rebury him decently. While the modern scholar John Julius Norwich says that "the sorrow that attended his death was more than he deserved", the contemporary chronicler Falco of Benevento records that the death of this virum bellicosum et magnanimum ("bellicose and magnanimous man") was accompanied by the wailing of virgins and tearing of hair.
Roger II or Roger the Great was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, then King of Sicily in 1130 and King of Africa in 1148.
Robert II was the count of Aversa and the prince of Capua from 1127 until his death.
Alfonso, also called Anfuso or Anfusus (c. 1120 – 10 October 1144), was the Prince of Capua from 1135 and Duke of Naples from 1139. He was an Italian-born Norman of the noble Hauteville family. After 1130, when his father Roger became King of Sicily, he was the third in line to the throne; second in line after the death of an older brother in 1138. He was the first Hauteville prince of Capua after his father conquered the principality from the rival Norman Drengot family. He was also the first Norman duke of Naples after the duchy fell vacant on the death of the last Greek duke. He also expanded his family's power northwards, claiming lands also claimed by the Papacy, although he was technically a vassal of the Pope for his principality of Capua.
The Battle of Nocera or Scafati was the first major battle of Roger II of Sicily and the first of his two major defeats at the hands of Count Ranulf of Alife.
Sergius VII was the thirty-ninth and last duke of Naples. He succeeded his father John VI on the Neapolitan throne in 1122 at a time when Roger II of Sicily was rising rapidly in power. When Roger succeeded as duke of Apulia in 1127 and was crowned king in 1130, the fate of Naples hinged on Sergius' relations with the Sicilian court.
The Battle of Rignano was the second great defeat of the career of Roger II of Sicily and, like the first, the Battle of Nocera, it too came at the hands of Ranulf II, Count of Alife. The prime difference was the position of the two combatants.
Roger III was the eldest son of King Roger II of Sicily and Elvira of Castile. He was the Duke of Apulia from 1134 until his death.
Tancred of Conversano, the youngest son of Geoffrey, Count of Conversano, became the count of Brindisi on his father's death in 1100.
Robert of Selby was an Englishman, a courtier of Roger II and chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily. It is likely that his name indicates that he was from Selby in Yorkshire. He probably journeyed to Sicily about 1130. In his train was Thomas Brun.
The Treaty of Mignano of 1139 was the treaty which ended more than a decade of constant war in the Italian Mezzogiorno following the union of the mainland duchy of Apulia and Calabria with the County of Sicily in 1127.
The Drengots were a Norman family of mercenaries, one of the first to head to Southern Italy to fight in the service of the Lombards. They became the most prominent family after the Hautevilles.
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.
Guarin was the chaplain and chancellor of Roger II of Sicily from about 1130 to his death, during the first decade of the Norman kingdom of Sicily. According to Alexander of Telese, the contemporary chronicler, he was "erudite ... and most prudent in negotiations ... a cleric well-versed in letters, skillful in matters of the world, and possessed of a tenacious and cautious mind."
John was the amiratus or emir of Roger II of Sicily. John was born to the Admiral Eugenius in Palermo, where his family had moved from Troina. His brothers were the logothete Philip and the amiratus Nicholas. His uncle was the notary Basil. All his family members were closely connected to the royal family and in its service. John's son was the equally famous Eugenius II.
The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1194, involving many battles and independent conquerors.
The County of Apulia and Calabria, later the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria, was a Norman state founded by William of Hauteville in 1043 composed of the territories of Gargano, Capitanata, Apulia, Vulture, and most of Campania. It became a duchy when Robert Guiscard was raised to the rank of duke by Pope Nicholas II in 1059.
Events in the year 1137 in Italy
Ranulf I was the count of Caiazzo in the Principality of Capua from about 1078. He also brought the formerly Lombard counties of Alife, Telese and Sant'Agata dei Goti and the castles of Airola and Tocco Caudio under his control, dominating the region between Capua and Benevento. He passed this territorial lordship on intact to his heirs, and it remained in their possession until the death of his grandson and namesake, Ranulf II, in 1139.
Richard was the Italo-Norman count of Rupecanina.
Robert was a south Italian nobleman who ruled the counties of Airola, Alife, Caiazzo, Sant'Agata and Telese from 1088 until his death. He was the regent of Capua in 1090–93, and was effectively independent of any lord after 1105. He was a major patron of churches and abbeys, and also commissioned several books.
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