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The dukes of Naples were the military commanders of the ducatus Neapolitanus, a Byzantine outpost in Italy, one of the few remaining after the conquest of the Lombards. In 661, Emperor Constans II, highly interested in south Italian affairs (he established his court in Syracuse), appointed a Neapolitan named Basil dux or magister militum. Thereafter a line of dukes, often largely independent and dynastic from the mid-ninth century, ruled until the coming of the Normans, a new menace they could not weather. The thirty-ninth and last duke, Sergius VII, surrendered his city to King Roger II of Sicily in 1137.

Dukes appointed by Byzantium

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Hereditary dukes

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These dukes were more independent than their predecessors and they were not chosen by the emperor, but the descendants of Sergius I, who was elected by the citizens.

 
A family tree of dukes of Naples

Sergian dynasty (Sergii)

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In 1139, Naples capitulated to the Normans and shortly after elected a Norman ruler from the ruling dynasty.[2]

House of Hauteville

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In 1154, William succeeded to the Sicilian crown and the line of dukes ends.

Notes

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  1. ^ He was the son of Bonus and ruled six months before being deposed by his father-in-law, Andrew II, in September, cf. Raffaele Matarazzo (ed.), Storia dei longobardi beneventani (Naples: 1999), p. 26, and Alessandro Pratesi, "Andrea", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 3 (Rome: 1961).
  2. ^ The late chronology is taken from Paul Arthur, Naples, from Roman Town to City-state: An Archaeological Perspective (London: British School at Rome, 2002), p. 167.
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Further reading

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  • Chalandon, Ferdinand. Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile, 2 vol. Paris: 1907.
  • Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016–1130. Longmans: London, 1967.
  • Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130–1194. Longman: London, 1970.
  • Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476–918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
  • Skinner, Patricia. Family Power in Southern Italy: The Duchy of Gaeta and its Neighbours, 850-1139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-46479-X.