Jordan II of Capua
Encyclopedia
Jordan I of Capua
Jordan I , count of Aversa and prince of Capua from 1078 to his death, was the eldest son and successor of Prince Richard I of Capua and Fressenda, a daughter of Tancred of Hauteville and his second wife, also named Fressenda, and the nephew of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily...
and Princess Gaitelgrima
Gaitelgrima, daughter of Guaimar IV
Gaitelgrima was the daughter of Guaimar IV of Salerno and Gemma. She was married off by her brother Gisulf II of Salerno to Jordan I of Capua as was her sister, Sichelgaita, to Robert Guiscard....
, a daughter of Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno
Guaimar IV of Salerno
Guaimar IV was Prince of Salerno , Duke of Amalfi , Duke of Gaeta , and Prince of Capua 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, from at least May 1109, the lord of Nocera
Nocera Inferiore
Nocera Inferiore, formerly Nocera dei Pagani, is a town and comune in Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, at the foot of Monte Albino, 20 km east-south-east of Naples by rail.-History:...
, and, after June 1120, Prince of Capua. The date and place of his brith are unknown, but it must have been later than 1080. He was married, before 1113, to Gaitelgrima, daughter of Sergius, Prince of Sorrento, a union which allowed him to extended his influence down the Amalfi Coast
Amalfi Coast
-In popular culture:The Amalfi Coast is a popular destination among tourists. It was featured in "Positano," a short story written by American author John Steinbeck in 1953...
from his castle at Nocera.
Lord of Nocera
The earliest attestation of Jordan as lord of Nocera dates to May 1109, but it sheds no light on the nature of his lordship (dominatus). Before falling to the troops of Count Roger I of SicilyRoger I of Sicily
Roger I , called Bosso and the Great Count, was the Norman Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was the last great leader of the Norman conquest of southern Italy.-Conquest of Calabria and Sicily:...
, Nocera had been the central town of one of the subdivisions, either an actus (circuit, jurisdiction) or comitatus (county), of the Principality of Salerno
Principality of Salerno
The Lombard Principality of Salerno was a South Italian state, centered on the port city of Salerno, formed in 851 out of the Principality of Benevento after a decade-long civil war....
. There is some evidence that the old territorial divisions of the principality survived the Norman takeover. Nocera, guarding a narrow valley connecting the Principality of Salerno with the Principality of Capua
Principality of Capua
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state 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....
, retained strategic significance so long as the Hauteville family
Hauteville family
The family of the Hauteville was a petty baronial Norman family from the Cotentin which rose to prominence in Europe, Asia, and Africa through its conquests in the Mediterranean, especially Southern Italy and Sicily...
controlled the former and Jordan's family, the Drengots
Drengot family
The Drengots were a Norman family of mercenaries, one of the first to head to the Mezzogiorno of Italy to fight in the service of the Lombards. They became the most prominent family after the Hautevilles.-Origins:...
, the latter. However, no surviving document explicitly attributes to Jordan command of the district around Nocera, nor, before becoming prince, did he employ a formal title. His charter always refer to him as "Jordan, son of the Jordan once prince" (Jordanus Jordani filius quondam principis).
In a deed of gift of 1113, Jordan states that property he was dispenseing was "in the territory of Nocera, which belongs to me" (in territorio Nucerie quod michi pertinet) and among the witnesses to the document are "the good men of the aforesaid castle of Nocera" (bon[i] predicto castello Nucerie vir[i]), probably his vassals. In every other charter he issued from this date on he explicitly recognises the authority of his brother, Prince Robert I of Capua
Robert I of Capua
Robert I , count of Aversa and prince of Capua from 1106, on the death of his elder and heirless brother Richard, was the second eldest son of Jordan I of Capua and Gaitelgrima, daughter of Guaimar IV of Salerno....
. A diploma Jordan issued in September 1111, with the consent of his brother, in favour of the monastery of Santissima Trinità di Cava de' Tirreni is dated by the reign of Duke William II of Apulia. Although this is an isolated case, it suggests that Capuan control of Nocera was not entirely effective and that at times the Hautevilles were able to make themselves felt there, or that Jordan perhaps played both powers against each other, taking advantage of the ambiguity of Nocera's status.
Throughout his rule at Nocera, Jordan was on very good terms with the monastery of Cava. In the diploma of September 1111, he confirmed Abbot Peter's properties in his territory, delineating precisely their boundaries, and, along with some of his vassals, undertook to defend them. A few days later, in the presence of Sergius of Sorrento, among others, Jordan swore to protect the person of the abbot and several fortresses belonging to the abbey, including the strategic castle of Sant'Adiutore. In March 1114 Jordan organised a gathering of prominent Normans, including his brother, at Nocera in order to extract oaths from Robert of Eboli and Roger of San Severino to stop their hostile actions against Cava. In January 1115 he confirmed some goods to the monastery of San Massimo di Salerno, a dependency of Cava, which had been forced to take its claims to court against the citizens of Nocera. Jordan also made important concessions to the monastery of San Angelo in Formis, a dependency 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...
, to which he even gave some of his own inherited land.
Prince of Capua
Jordan was not expected to inherit the Principality of Capua. His eldest brother, Richard IIRichard II of Capua
Richard II , called the Bald, was the count of Aversa and the prince of Capua from 1090 or 1091.The eldest son and successor of Jordan I of Capua and Gaitelgrima, daughter of Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno, he was named after his grandfather, Richard I of Capua...
, died childless and was succeeded by Robert I, who died on 3 June 1120. He was followed by an infant son, Richard III
Richard III of Capua
Richard III was count of Aversa and prince of Capua briefly in 1120 between his anointing on 27 May and his death; he was the only son and heir of Robert I of Capua. He was an infant when his father died, and he fell under the regency of his uncle, Jordan...
, who had already been anointed his co-prince, but who survived him by only a week before dying in unspecified circumstances on 10 June. These deaths paved the way for Jordan's accession that same month, and some modern historians have suggested that he had a hand in his nephew's premature death. He was anointed prince on 4 July. The little known of his princely reign shows him continuing his patronage of the major monastic institutions of the principality. Later that year he did homage to Pope Callistus II.
In November 1120 Jordan confirmed the assets and rights of San Angelo in Formis. In 1121 he granted the chapel of San Fede in the civic palace of Aversa
Aversa
Aversa is a town and comune in the Province of Caserta in Campania southern Italy, about 15 kilometres north of Naples. It is the centre of an agricultural district, the agro aversano, producing wine and cheese...
with its properties to the cathedral of San Paolo
Aversa Cathedral
Aversa Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Aversa in the province of Caserta, Campania, Italy.It has been the seat of the Bishop of Aversa from the bishopric's foundation in 1053....
. That same year he assigned considerable rents to the Diocese of Pozzuoli and the monasteries of San Lorenzo di Capua and San Lorenzo di Aversa. His munificence to the churches was perhaps not entirely innocent and pious. His grant of the strategic castle of Pico to Monte Cassino in February 1125 may disguise his efforts to extend his authority into the remotest parts of the principality, or even into the monastery itself, which was forced to accepta compromise in order to receive the fortress.
Nevertheless, the powers of the princes of Capua were on the wan. The pacts Jordan initiated with Monte Cassino in June 1123 bearing a resemblance to the contemporary pacts of men of lesser rank with the same monastery, perhaps indicating the prince's diminished importance in the politics of the age. His generosity, however, was not forgotten: Jordan II is the only prince of Capua after Jordan I whose death, on 19 December 1127 at an unspecified location, is recorded in the Cassinese necrology. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert II
Robert II of Capua
Robert II was the count of Aversa and the prince of Capua from 1127 until his death .He was the only son and successor of Jordan II of Capua...
, the last Prince of Capua.
Primary sources
- Peter the DeaconPeter the DeaconPeter the Deacon was the librarian of the abbey of Montecassino and continuator of the Chronicon Monasterii Casinensis, usually called the Montecassino Chronicle in English. The chronicle was originally written by Leo of Ostia...
, Chronica monasterii Casinensis. - Falco of BeneventoFalco of BeneventoFalco of Benevento was an Italian twelfth-century historian, notary and scribe in the papal palace in Benevento, his native city, where he was born to high-standing parents.He is an important chronicler for the years between 1102 and 1139 in the Mezzogiorno...
, Chronicon Beneventanum. - Romuald Guarna, Chronicon, sive Annales.
Secondary sources
- Chalandon, F.Ferdinand ChalandonFerdinand Chalandon was a French medievalist and Byzantinist.Chalandon’s work remains the most substantial study of the Normans in Italy and though the details of what he wrote a hundred years ago have in places been modified, it remains the single most important work available to historians.Being...
Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile, I, (Paris: 1907), pp. 297, 320ff., 390. - Cuozzo, E. Normanni: Feudi e feudatari (Salerno: 1966), pp. 484–91.
- Cuozzo, E. "L'unificazione normanna e il Regno normanno-svevo", Storia del Mezzogiorno, II, ii, (Napoli: 1989), p. 613.
- Di Resta, I. "Il Principato di Capua", Storia del Mezzogiorno, II, ii, (Napoli: 1989), p. 181.
- Loud, G. A. "Five unpublished charters of the Norman princes of Capua", Benedictina, XXVII (1980), pp. 164, 170, 175.
- Loud, G. A. "Nunneries, nobles and women in the Norman Principality of Capua", Annali Canossiani, I (1981), pp. 48ff.
- Loud, G. A. "A calendar of the diplomas of the Norman princes of Capua", Papers of the British School at Rome, XLIV (1981), pp. 104, 109ff., 114, 138–41.
- Loud, G. A. Church and society in the Norman Principality of Capua, 1058–1197 (Oxford: 1985), pp. 95–97, 118, 121, 128, 134, 136, 147, 223.
- Loud, G. A. "Continuity and change in Norman Italy: the Campania during the eleventh and the twelfth centuries", Journal of Medieval HistoryJournal of Medieval HistoryThe Journal of Medieval History is a major international academic journal devoted to all aspects of the history of Europe in the Middle Ages....
, XXII (1996), pp. 326, 336. - Loud, G. A. "The abbey of Cava, its property and benefactors in the Norman era", Anglo-Norman Studies IX: Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1986, R. A. Brown, ed. (Woodbridge: 1987), pp. 161, 165.
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