Guaimar III of Salerno
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Guaimar III (also Waimar, Gaimar, Guaimaro, or Guaimario and sometimes numbered Guaimar IV) (c.983 – c.1027) was duke (or prince) of Salerno from around 994 to his death. His date of death is sometimes given at 1030 or 1031, but the most reliable sources consistently indicate 1027. Under his reign, Salerno entered an era of great splendour and Opulenta Salernum was the inscription on his coins. He made Amalfi, Gaeta, and Sorrento his vassals and annexed much of Byzantine Apulia and Calabria.
He was the second eldest son of Duke John II of Salerno. The eldest was Guy, who ruled as co-ruler with his father from January 984 to 988. Sometime between January and March 989, John made Guaimar co-regent. In 994 (also given as 998 or 999), his father died and he became sole ruler.
In 999, a band of Norman pilgrims returning from Jerusalem stopped at the port of Salerno. While staying there, the city was attacked by Saracen pirates. The frightened Salernitans did not offer battle, but the warlike Normans did. Soon their bravery drew out the Salernitans and together they routed the Moslem menace. Guaimar promptly offered them numerous incentives to stay, but to no avail, the Normans returned to France, promising to spread the word about the need for fighting men in the south.
As a member of the independent Lombard leadership of the Mezzogiorno, Guaimar himself supported the Lombard freedom-fighter Melus of Bari and, after Melus' defeat in 1011, he was paid a visit by the victorious Byzantine catapan, Basil Mesardonites, in October. Later, he sheltered Melus. He was nominally a vassal of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, but after the defeat at Cannae in 1018, he discreetly transferred his allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. When Henry died in 1024, Guaimar sent an embassy to the new Emperor Conrad II to plead for the release of his brother-in-law Pandulf IV of Capua, the Wolf of the Abruzzi. Conrad, in a show of naïveté, complied. The Wolf immediately put his old capital, Capua, of which he had once been prince, under siege. An endeavour in which he had the support of Guaimar and his Normans under Ranulf Drengot and the catepan of Italy, Boiannes.
Guaimar made his eldest son by his first wife, Porpora of Tabellaria (d.c.1010), John III, co-prince in 1015, but, in 1018, he died. He then made his eldest son by his second wife, Gaitelgrima, the sister of Pandulf, also named Guaimar, co-prince. It was this son who succeeded him in 1027 at the age of fourteen or sixteen under the regency of Gaitelgrima, who was basically the pawn of her brother Pandulf. Guaimar III's second son, Guy, was made gastald of Capua by his uncle and later duke of Sorrento by his elder brother. His third son, Pandulf, became lord of Capaccio. He had a daughter (probably about 1026) named Gaitelgrima, who married successively the brothers Drogo and Humphrey, counts of Apulia.
| Preceded by: John II |
Prince of Salerno 994 – 1027 |
Succeeded by: Guaimar IV |
[edit] References
- Gwatkin, H.M., Whitney, J.P. (ed) et al. The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III. Cambridge University Press, 1926.
- Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.
- Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LX Grosso – Guglielmo da Forlì. Rome, 2003.
