Duchy of Naples in the context of "Italy in the Middle Ages"

⭐ In the context of Italy in the Middle Ages, the Duchy of Naples experienced a shift in its political status as a result of what broader historical development?

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⭐ Core Definition: Duchy of Naples

The Duchy of Naples (Latin: Ducatus Neapolitanus, Neapolitan: Ducato di Napule) began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the lands roughly corresponding to the current province of Naples that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the sixth century.

It was governed by a military commander (dux), and rapidly became a de facto independent state, lasting more than five centuries during the Early and High Middle Ages. Naples remains a significant metropolitan city in present-day Italy.

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👉 Duchy of Naples in the context of Italy in the Middle Ages

The history of Italy in the Middle Ages can be roughly defined as the time between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance. Late antiquity in Italy lingered on into the 7th century under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty, the Byzantine Papacy until the mid 8th century. The "Middle Ages" proper begin as the Byzantine Empire was weakening under the pressure of the Muslim conquests, and most of the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell under Lombard rule in 751. From this period, former states that were part of the Exarchate and were not conquered by the Lombard Kingdom, such as the Duchy of Naples, became de facto independent states, having less and less interference from the Eastern Roman Empire.

Lombard rule ended with the invasion of Charlemagne in 773, who established the Kingdom of Italy and the Papal States in large parts of Northern and Central Italy. This set the precedent for the main political conflict in Italy over the following centuries, between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, culminating with conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV and the latter's "Walk to Canossa" in 1077.

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Duchy of Naples in the context of Republic of Amalfi

The Duchy of Amalfi (Latin: Ducatus Amalphitanus) or the Republic of Amalfi was a de facto independent state centered on the Southern Italian city of Amalfi during the 10th and 11th centuries. The city and its territory were originally part of the larger Duchy of Naples, governed by a patrician, but it extracted itself from Byzantine vassalage and first elected a duke (or doge) in 958.

During the 10th and 11th centuries Amalfi was estimated to have a population of 50,000–70,000 people. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade in the ninth and tenth centuries, before being surpassed and superseded by the other maritime republics of the North and the Centre: Pisa, Venice, Genoa, Ancona and Gaeta. In 1073, Amalfi lost its independence, falling to Norman invasion and subsequently to Pisa in 1137.

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Duchy of Naples in the context of Codex Caietanus

The Codex diplomaticus Caietanus (CDC) is an edited collection of documents (diplomas) pertaining to the Southern Italian city of Gaeta in the Middle Ages, from the eighth century to the fourteenth. The collection represents "for its geographically restricted range ... a relative abundance of sources". The Codex consists of documents kept in the archives of the Abbey of Montecassino, including the archives of the Gattola family, which were given to the abbey. The Codex was originally conceived in the late eighteenth century and finally published, as part of the Tabularium casinense series, by the monks of Montecassino in three volumes beginning with the first in 1887, the second volume in 1891 and the third volume in two installments in 1958 and 1960. Although the assembling of all the documents relating to medieval Gaeta was sometimes undertaken uncritically, the monks appended a comprehensive and trustworthy index.

The Codex is the main source for the history of the Duchy of Gaeta and it provides greater detail for it than for the neighbouring early medieval states of Amalfi, Naples and Sorrento.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Italy in the Middle Ages ← Medieval Italy ← Republic of Amalfi ← Duchy of Amalfi ← Italian Middle Ages ← Codex Caietanus
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Latin language → Neapolitan language → Byzantine Empire → Metropolitan City of Naples → Lombards → Dux → Early Middle Ages → High Middle Ages → Metropolitan cities of Italy → Italy →