Principality of Salerno

The Principality of Salerno was the Lombard state of southern Italy, formed in 851 when Louis, King of Italy, cut the warring Principality of Benevento in two after Siconulf, sprung by Amalfitan merchants from a Taranto prison, had himself proclaimed prince at Salerno. Centred on its great port, it held the western half of the Lombard south with Taranto, Cosenza, Capua and a chain of seaports, and lived de facto independent, bowing by turns to Carolingian emperors in the west and Byzantine emperors in the east. Its early years were unstable, with child princes deposed and counts grasping at the throne, but Salerno grew wealthy on Mediterranean trade and Lombard law, whose medical school became the most famous in Europe. In the eleventh century its last prince Gisulf picked fights with Amalfi and the Normans until Robert Guiscard besieged and took the city in 1077, folding the principality into the Norman south.