The Altavilla (Hauteville) and the Creation of the "Kingdom"

It was the "Kingdom" par excellence. Its territory was delineated since the very first years of its creation under Roger II of Altavilla and remained unchanged along the centuries until its fall in 1861: its northern boundary followed a line that stretched out from Civitella del Tronto (south of Ascoli) to Gaeta and touched Leonessa, L’Aquila (north of Pontecorvo) and then continued south to the Tyrrhenian Sea; its southern boundary was the sea itself, including Sicily. After the fall of the Roman Empire, part of the territories that would then form the Kingdom were under the Byzantine rule (Southern Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and the Duchy of Naples); others were under the Longobard rule (the Duchy of Benevento); in the IX century Sicily fell under Muslim rule. In the subsequent centuries, especially in the 11th century, the geopolitical situation of southern Italy showed a sad breaking up into small local states, whereas the ancient Byzantine and Longobard dominions gradually lost the control of the situation. A sort of “war of all against all” was the gradual outcome of this situation, worsened by the continuous Saracen raids. The South of Italy grew weaker and poorer: the Normans, led by the bold family of the Altavilla (Hauteville) were able to profit of this situation.

Roger III

Around the 11th century the first Norman mercenaries came to enrol in the armies of the various lords fighting each other; in this mercenary policy, the Altavilla stood out and were able to create an earldom of their own in Melfi in 1043. From that moment on, their political and military expansion was steady (especially under Robert the Guiscard, who conquered Apulia and Calabria) until they meddled also in the War of Investitures and were unscrupulously able to make the Pontiffs acknowledge their infeudation of the Church’s Southern dominions (in 1091 they expelled the Muslims from Sicily). Then, in 1130, Roger II of Altavilla (1101-1154) succeeded in convincing Pope Anacletus II to proclaim him King of Sicily, Apulia and Calabria (although he was the Pope’s vassal) and subsequently ruled also on Capua, Benevento and Naples. That was the formal birth of the Kingdom of Naples, at that time called "Kingdom of Sicily".

William I the Evil (1154-1166), William II the Good (1166-1189), Tancred (1189-1194), and William III (1194) succeeded Roger II.

The "Kingdom"

The Norman Dynasty died out with Constance of Altavilla, wife of the Emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire Henry VI Hohenstaufen (Frederic Barbarossa’s son) and mother of Frederic II Hohenstaufen, who, at the death of his father in 1197, inherited the Empire and the Kingdom (he was born in Jesi and brought up in Palermo). After Frederic II’s death in 1250, his illegitimate son, Manfred, became lord-lieutenant of the Kingdom as regent on behalf of his step-brother Conrad IV , who died prematurely in 1254; Manfred then held the regency on behalf of Conrad’s son, Conrad the Younger Hohenstaufen, but in 1258 he broke off with his nephew, proclaimed himself King of Sicily and resumed the anticlerical policy of his father. Urban VI first and Clement IV later fostered the coming to Italy of Charles of Anjou, brother of the King of France Louis IX (the Saint), who met and killed the Ghibelline Manfred at Benevento in 1266. But Conrad the Young turned up and claimed dynastic rights on the Kingdom; Charles met him at Tagliacozzo in 1268 and defeated him. At first, he had him arrested, but then he ordered his beheading on Piazza del Mercato in Naples. In this way, Charles could take the title of Charles I of Anjou King of Sicily, and start the Angevin - thus Capetian - rule on the Kingdom. Due to the consequences of the War of Vespers, he lost Sicily in 1282 in favour of Peter III of Aragon (who had married Constance, Manfred’s daughter) who became King of Sicily (1282-1285). So the kingdom was divided into Kingdom of Naples, under the Angevins, and Kingdom of Sicily, under the Aragoneses.

The Kingdom of Naples under the Angevins and the Aragoneses

Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily

The Angevins ruled over the continental part until 1442, when Alfonso of Aragon finally won the war against them (broke out because Joan II of Anjou had initially appointed Alfonso as her heir and subsequently withdrawn his appointment in favour of a French distant relative of hers), had a triumphal entry in Naples and unified again the Kingdom. His son Charles II (1285-1309), and, after him, Robert the Wise (1309-1343), Joan I (1343-1381), Charles III of Durrhes (1381-1386), Ladislaus of Durrhes (1386-1414), Joan II of Durrhes (1414-1435), Louis III (1435-1438), René (1438-1442) succeeded Charles I in the rule of Naples.