| Guaimar Iv Of Salerno |
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| 1052 deaths | |
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EARLY YEARS He was born around the year 1013, the eldest son of Guaimar III Of Salerno by Gaitelgrima, daughter of Duke Pandulf II Of Benevento . His elder half-brother, the son of Porpora of Tabellaria, John (III) reigned as co-prince from 1015 . When he died in 1018 , Guaimar was made co-prince. He succeeded his father in Salerno in 1027 (at the age of fourteen or sixteen, possibly under the Regency of his mother during his brief minority). He embarked then on a lifelong quest to control the whole of the southern third of the Italian Peninsula . His first major victory occurred in 1035 , when he conquered Sorrento and gave it as a duchy to his brother Guy . In 1037 , he made his eldest son John co-prince as John IV, but he died in 1039 . In 1036 , he received word that his brother-in-law and erstwhile ally, Prince Pandulf IV Of Capua , aptly nickname the Wolf of the Abruzzi, had attempted to rape his niece. He then received the homage of the defecting Rainulf Drengot , formerly a vassal of Pandulf. Thus, Guaimar won the support of the Normans in the Mezzogiorno. In 1038, Guaimar made the politically savvy request of arbitration to both the Holy Roman and Byzantine Emperor s over the issue of Pandulf's unfitness. Only Emperor Conrad II accepted the invitation and travelled south. He demanded hostages from Pandulf. However, the hostages escaped and Capua was promtly besieged. Having taken that principality, he gave it to Guaimar, who asked for a title of nobility for his new Norman vassal. This was granted and Ranulf officially became "count of Aversa " and a vassal of Salerno. The next year, in 1039, Guaimar received the recognition of his Suzerainty from Amalfi, Gaeta, and Naples , a legally Byzantine duchy. HAUTEVILLE RELATIONS Soon after, he became involved with the Hautevilles . The Byzantines, who had not come at Guaimar's request, were preparing a Sicilian expedition under the great general Giorgio Maniace . Guaimar sent, at their request, a cohort of Lombard and Norman warriors, the first of which was one William , who, in Sicily , won the Epithet "Iron Arm". In 1038, the Normans and Lombards returned in a rebellious state and quickly invaded Greek Apulia . In this, Guaimar supported them and, in 1042 , they elected William Iron Arm as count and sought the approval of Guaimar, who they acclaimed, in full opposition to any Byzantine claims, Duke Of Apulia And Calabria ( 1043 ). Guaimar, in accordance with good feudal theory, granted them Melfi and the republican model on which it was set up. The feudal grouding was not so good in law, however. Guaimar was only duke by acclamation of the men he appointed as vassals and it was by the authority of the ducal title that he installed them in Melfi. This would cause him trouble later. In 1044 , he and the Iron Arm began to take Calabria and built a large castle at Squillace . In his later years, he had trouble retaining his possessions in the face of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Normans. Ranulf Drengot, who still held Aversa, originally from the duke of Naples, died in 1045 and his county passed, against all protestation from Guaimar, to his nephew Asclettin . Later in that same year, Guaimar opposed the succession of Asclettin's cousin Ranulf Trincanocte , but again was overridden. These quarrels led the once-loyal Aversa to return its allegiance to Pandulf, lately returned from Constantinopolitan exile. War with Pandulf continued from 1042 for five long years, Guaimar securing his own position by quickly recognising William's brother Drogo in 1046 on William's death and giving him his sister Gaitelgrima in marriage. LAST YEARS Then, his life's works was fully undone when, in 1047, the Emperor Henry III came down and demanded homage from the dukes of the south. He returned Capua to Pandulf and took Aversa and Melfi directly into his suzerainty. Finally, he deprived Guaimar of his title over Apulia and Calabria, bringing to an end that troublesome feudal oddity. In 1048 , Pandulf, prince again, was at war with Guaimar. On the death in that year of Ranulf II of Aversa, his succeeding son Herman , an infant, required a regent. The first appointment, Bellebouch, was a failure. Richard Drengot , a cousin of Herman's, was then in a Melfitan prison for making war on Drogo. Guaimar soon procured his release and personally brought him to Aversa, where he was installed as regent, and soon count in his own right. Thus, Guaimar recaptured the allegiance of Aversa. At a synod in Benevento in July 1051 , Pope Leo IX beseeched Guaimar and Drogo to stop the Norman incursions on church lands. Soon Drogo was assassinated, probably by a Byzantine conspiracy. He was quickly followed by Guaimar, who was assassinated in the harbour of his capital on 3 June 1052. His four assassins (his own brothers-in-law) then seized the city. His brother Guy quickly made to the Normans and soon the four conspirators were besieged in Salerno by a large Norman force and Guy's Sorrentine army. The brothers' families soon fell into their enemies' hands and they negotiated their release by releasing Gisulf, Guaimar's son and heir, to Guy. Guy accepted their surrender soon after and promised them no harm. The Normans, not bound, they said, by Guy's oath, massacred the four brothers and 36 others, one for each stab wound found in Guaimar's body. The Normans were loyal to Guaimar in death. Guaimar's legacy includes his dominion, either by conquest or otherwise, over Salerno, Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples, Sorrento, Apulia, Calabria, and Capua at one time or another. He was the last great Lombard prince of the south, but perhaps he is best for his character, which the Lord Norwich sums up nicely (''The Normans in the South'' pg. 88), "...without once breaking a promise or betraying a trust. Up to the day he died his honour and good faith had never once been called in question." He was succeeded by his son by Gemma, daughter of the Capuan Count Laidulf, (who later co-reigned with Gisulf), Landulf, Guy, and a second John. Also notably, his niece (the daughter of Guido), Guida, married William Iron Arm. SOURCES
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