List of Dukes of Naples

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dukes of Naples were the military commanders of the ducatus Neapolitanus, a Byzantine outpost in Italy, one of the few remaining after the coming of the Lombards and Saracens. In 661, Emperor Constans II, highly interested in south Italian affairs (he moved his capital to Syracuse), appointed a Neapolitan named Basil dux or magister militum. Thereafter a line of dukes, often largely independent and dynastic from the mid-ninth century, ruled until the coming of the Normans, a new menace they could not weather. The thirty-ninth and last duke, Sergius VII, surrendered his city to King Roger II of Sicily in 1137.

Contents

[edit] Dukes appointed by Byzantium

[edit] Hereditary dukes

These dukes were more independent than their predecessors and they were not chosen by the emperor, but the descendants of Sergius I, who was elected by the citizens.

[edit] Sergi Dynasty

Alfonso, Prince of Capua, was elected by the Neapolitans to succeed Sergius and Naples became a Norman possession afterwards.

[edit] Sources

  • Naples in the Dark Ages by David Taylor and Jeff Matthews.
  • Chalandon, Ferdinand. Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicilie, 2 vol. Paris: 1907.
  • Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016–1130. Longmans: London, 1967.
  • Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130–1194. Longman: London, 1970.
  • Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476–918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
  • Skinner, Patricia. Family Power in Southern Italy: The Duchy of Gaeta and its Neighbours, 850-1139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0 521 46479 X.
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