From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Following the collapse of Roman and later Lombard authority in southern Italy, a group of semi-independent principalities evolved between the 8th and 11th centuries:
Principality of Benevento , a former Lombard duchy, independent from 774
Principality of Salerno , split off from Benevento in 851
Principality of Capua , split off from Benevento in 981
Duchy of Naples , a former Byzantine province, a hereditary principality from 840
Duchy of Gaeta , its ruler took the title Duke in 933
Duchy of Amalfi , its ruler took the title Duke in 958
Duchy of Sorrento , usually under the authority of Amalfi
Emirate of Bari , an Arab state, founded in 847, conquered in 871
Emirate of Sicily , independent from 965
County of Aversa , a Norman fief of Naples from 1030, conquered Capua in 1058
County of Sicily , the Norman conquest began in 1071, and was finished in 1091; the conquest of Malta was finished in 1127
Duchy of Apulia and Calabria , the supreme Norman authority on the peninsula from 1047
Eventually, all of these principalities were united under Norman rule and merged into the
Kingdom of Sicily , founded in 1130