Guaifer (c. 835 – 880) was the Prince of Salerno from 861. The son of Daufer the Mute and grandson of Daufer the Prophet, he was the first of the Dauferidi to sit on the Salernitan throne which his family dominated unobstructed until 977.

Guaifer's sister, Adelchisa, married Sicard of Benevento

Sicard of Benevento

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...

 and when Sicard was assassinated and Radelchis

Radelchis I of Benevento

Radelchis I was the treasurer, then prince of Benevento from 839, when he assumed the throne upon the assassination of Sicard and imprisonment of Sicard's brother, Siconulf, to his death, though in his time the principality was divided.According to the Chronica S...

 usurped the throne, Guaifer helped release Siconulf, the dead prince's brother, and supported him in his war with Radelchis for the throne, even proclaiming him prince in Salerno. In 851, the great principality of Benevento

Duchy of Benevento

The Duchy and later Principality of Benevento was the southernmost Lombard duchy in medieval Italy, centred on Benevento, a city central in the Mezzogiorno. Owing to the Ducatus Romanus of the popes, which cut it off from the rest of Lombard Italy, Benevento was from the first practically...

 was officially divided between Benevento and Salerno by the Emperor Louis II. Siconulf's son and successor fell under the control of Peter

Peter of Salerno

Peter was originally the tutor and guardian of the young prince of Salerno, Sico II. He held that post for two years from 851 to 853....

, who, in December 853, received Louis's recognition as prince. He was succeeded by his son Adhemar

Adhemar of Salerno

Adhemar was the son of Prince Peter of Salerno. He succeeded his father, an usurper, in 853.Adhemar's rule was unpopular. The counts of Capua whittled away at his princely authority and territory...

, but the latter's rule was unpopular and by 859, Capua

Capua

Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...

, a Salernitan vassal desiring independence, was wearing away at princely authority with her attacks. In 861, matters came to a head and Guaifer leading a popular revolt, removed Adhemar and imprisoned him, blinding him later. To solidify his own position he exiled his own nephew, another Daufer. This was all seen as rebellion by the Emperor Louis, but, fortunately for Guaifer, he was occupied elsewhere.

At the beginning of his reign, a restive Capua, which had gone through several internal upheavals, under the gastald

Gastald

A gastald was a Lombard official in charge of some portion of the royal demesne with civil, martial, and judicial powers. By the Edictum Rothari of 643, the gastalds were given the civil authority in the cities and the reeves the like authority in the countryside...

 or count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 Landulf II

Landulf II of Capua

Landulf II was Bishop and Count of Capua. He was the youngest of four sons of Landulf I, gastald of Capua. As a young man, he entered the church. When his father died, his eldest brother, Lando, succeeded him....

 made a move for independence, but Guaifer kept them securely in the Salernitan fold. Nonetheless, Guaifer married Landelaica, daughter of Lando I of Capua

Lando I of Capua

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....

, by whom he had a son, Guaimar

Guaimar I of Salerno

Guaimar I was the prince of Salerno from 880, when his father entered the monastery of Monte Cassino in August. His parents were Prince Guaifer and Landelaica, daughter of Lando I of Capua...

, who succeeded him. In 865, Guaifer founded the monastery of San Massimo

San Massimo

San Massimo is a comune in the Province of Campobasso in the Italian region Molise, located about 25 km southwest of Campobasso...

, where he and his descendants are buried, and in 868, he richly endowed it with grants in land and money. Despite his status as a Christian prince, he was not usually at war with the Moslems and may even have been their foedus for a time (according to Erchempert

Erchempert

Erchempert was a monk of Monte Cassino in the final quarter of the ninth century. He chronicled a history of Lombard Benevento, giving especially vivid account of the violence surrounding his monastic retreat in his own day. The work, Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum, stops in the winter of...

). They besieged his city in 871–872, but to no avail. He retired to or was forced by his son into the monastery of Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...

 in 880, but died very soon after.

Sources

• Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LX Grosso – Guglielmo da Forlì. Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
  , 2003.