The Principality of Salerno (Latin: Principatus Salerni) was a medievalSouthern Italian state, formed in 851 out of the Principality of Benevento after a decade-long civil war. It was centred on the port city of Salerno. Although it owed allegiance at its foundation to the Carolingian emperor, it was de facto independent throughout its history and alternated its allegiance between the Carolingians and their successors in the West and the Byzantine emperors in the east.
After the uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers against Charles's father, the island of Sicily became an independent kingdom under the rule of Peter III of Aragon in 1282. A year later, his father made Charles regent in the mainland territories of the Regno (or the Kingdom of Naples). Charles held a general assembly where unpopular taxes were abolished and the liberties of the noblemen and clerics were confirmed. He could not prevent the Aragonese from occupying Calabria and the islands in the Gulf of Naples. The Sicilian admiral Roger of Lauria captured him in a naval battle near Naples in 1284. As he was still in prison when his father died on 7 January 1285, his realms were ruled by regents. The remainder of his rule was spent seeking a resolution to the Sicilian war, diplomatic moves concerning his inheritance, and administrating the new Kingdom of Naples.
Salerno (UK: /sæˈlɛərnoʊ/, US: /səˈ-,sɑːˈ-,səˈlɜːrnoʊ/; Italian:[saˈlɛrno]; Neapolitan: Salierno[saˈljernə]) is an ancient city and comune (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Some of the Allied landings during Operation Avalanche (the invasion of Italy) occurred near Salerno. For a time the city became home to Victor Emmanuel III, the King of Italy, who moved from Rome in 1943 after Italy negotiated a peace with the Allies in World War II. Salerno thus became the capital of the Kingdom of the South, the seat of the provisional government and Italy's de facto capital for six months. The city has 125,958 inhabitants as of 2025.
Human settlement at Salerno has a rich past dating back to pre-historic times. In the early Middle Ages it was an independent Lombard principality, the Principality of Salerno, which around the 11th century comprised most of Southern Italy. During this time, the Schola Medica Salernitana, the first medical school in the world, was founded. In 1077, the Normans made Salerno the capital of their lands in all of continental southern Italy. In the 16th century, under the Sanseverino family, who were among the most powerful feudal lords in southern Italy, the city became a great centre of learning, culture and the arts, and the family hired several of the greatest intellectuals of the time. Later, in 1694, the city was struck by several catastrophic earthquakes and plagues. During a period of Spanish rule the city suffered a crisis which would last until the 18th century, but under Napoleon Salerno became part of the Parthenopean Republic. In the 19th century Salerno supported ideas of the Risorgimento and welcomed Garibaldi in 1861.
Principality of Salerno in the context of Langobardia Minor
Langobardia Minor, also spelled as Longobardia Minor, was a historical name given to the Lombard domains in southern Italy during the Early Middle Ages, in order to distinguish those regions from the Langobardia Major in northern Italy. The scope of Langobardia Minor was corresponding to territories of southern Lombard duchies of Spoleto, Benevento, Salerno and their local dependencies. While the rule of Lombard kings over northern Langobardia Major was direct and effective, their control over southern Langobardia Minor and its dukes was mainly nominal. After the conquest of northern parts of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne in 774, its southern duchies in Langobardia Minor remained under control of local Lombard dukes, who preserved their autonomy, but occasionally sided or allied with the Carolingian or the Byzantine empires. After capturing some parts of Langobardia Minor, the Byzantines created a province (theme) called Langobardia. In the 11th century, during the Norman conquest of southern Italy, entire Langobardia Minor gradually came under the Norman rule, and the last Lombard Principality of Salerno fell in 1077, thus ending the Langobardia Minor.
