South Italian principalities
Encyclopedia
Following the collapse of Roman and later Lombard authority in southern Italy, a group of semi-independent principalities evolved between the 8th and 11th centuries:
- Principality of Benevento, a former Lombard duchy independent from 774
- Principality of SalernoPrincipality of SalernoThe 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....
, split off from Benevento in 851 - Principality of CapuaPrincipality of CapuaThe 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....
, split off from Benevento in 981
- Duchy of NaplesDuchy of NaplesThe Duchy of Naples began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the reduced coastal lands that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the sixth century...
, a former Byzantine province, a hereditary principality from 840 - Duchy of GaetaDuchy of GaetaThe Duchy of Gaeta was an early medieval state centred on the coastal South Italian city of Gaeta. It began in the early ninth century as the local community began to grow autonomous as Byzantine power lagged in the Mediterranean and the peninsula thanks to Lombard and Saracen incursions.Our...
, its ruler took the title Duke in 933 - Duchy of AmalfiDuchy of AmalfiThe Duchy of Amalfi or the Republic of Amalfi was a de facto independent state centred on the Southern Italian city of Amalfi during the 10th and 11th centuries. The city and its territory were originally part of the larger ducatus Neapolitanus, governed by a patrician, but it extracted itself...
, its ruler took the title Duke in 958 - Duchy of SorrentoDuchy of SorrentoThe Duchy of Sorrento was a small peninsular principality of the Early Middle Ages centred on the Italian city of Sorrento.Originally, Sorrento was part of the Byzantine Duchy of Naples in the Dark Ages, but in the ninth century, along with Amalfi and Gaeta, it broke away from the Neapolitans to...
, usually under the authority of Amalfi
- County of Aversa, a Norman fief of Naples from 1030, conquered Capua in 1058
- County of SicilyCounty of SicilyThe County of Sicily was a Norman state comprising the islands of Sicily and Malta from 1071 until 1130. The county began to form during the Christian reconquest of Sicily from the Muslim Emirate, established by conquest in 965. The county is thus a transitionary period in the history of Sicily...
, the Norman conquest began in 1071, it became a kingdom in 1130 - Duchy of Apulia and Calabria, the supreme Norman authority on the peninsula from 1047