Duke Guaimar of Salerno III

  General Notes:

duke (or prince) of Salerno from around 994 to his death. His date of death is sometimes given as 1030 or 1031, but the most reliable sources consistently indicate 1027. Under his reign, Salerno entered an era of great splendour. Opulenta Salernum was the inscription on his coins. He made Amalfi, Gaeta and Sorrento his vassals and annexed much of Byzantine Apulia and Calabria.

He was the second eldest son of Duke John II of Salerno. The eldest was Guy, who ruled as co-ruler with his father from January 984 to 988. Sometime between January and March 989, John made Guaimar co-regent. In 994 (also given as 998 or 999), his father died and he became sole ruler.

In 999, a band of Norman pilgrims returning from Jerusalem stopped at the port of Salerno. While they were staying there, the city was attacked by Saracen pirates. The Salernitans were afraid to offer battle, but the warlike Normans were not. Soon their bravery drew out the Salernitans and together they routed the Moslem force. Guaimar promptly offered the Normans numerous incentives to stay, but to no avail. Before they left, however, the Normans promised to spread the word about the need for fighting men in the south.

As a member of the independent Lombard leadership of the Mezzogiorno, Guaimar supported the Lombard rebel Melus of Bari. After Melus's defeat in 1011, Guaimar was paid a visit by the victorious Byzantine catapan, Basil Mesardonites, in October. Later, he sheltered Melus. Guaimar was nominally a vassal of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, but after the defeat at Cannae in 1018, he discreetly transferred his allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. When Henry died in 1024, Guaimar sent an embassy to the new emperor, Conrad II, to plead for the release of his brother-in-law Pandulf IV of Capua, the Wolf of the Abruzzi. Conrad naively complied. Upon his return, Pandulf immediately put his old capital, Capua, under siege, an endeavour in which he had the support of Guaimar and his Normans under Ranulf Drengot and the catepan of Italy, Boiannes.

Guaimar married Gaitelgrima of Capua, daughter of Prince Pandulf of Benevento II (the old) and Unknown. (Gaitelgrima of Capua died after 1027.)