Zitationsvorschlag
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Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.
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Il confine labile. Spazio, potere e la concezione del ducato nel Meridione (1057–1140)
Abstract What were the ideological and material boundaries of ducal power in the Mezzogiorno before the Kingdom of Sicily? This chapter will examine this question, positing that the Duchy of Apulia was a negotiated entity, defined by changeable and often unstable boundaries, which made it both expandible and to an extent unstable, depending on the initiative and strength of the duke. The chapter will also examine the instability of the duchy’s geographic extension, the tolerance shown to elements of disturbance within the ruling House of Hauteville, alternative sources of legitimacy in the South, and the foundational issues of ducal power, outlining how the duchy’s potential for disruption and tolerance of centrifugal forces were inbuilt from the start. Concluding with an examination of how, nonetheless, the duchy was accepted as a conceptual source of legitimacy and first overlordship of the South, the final part of the chapter will recognise how it still held great potential to bring together the Normans in southern Italy, and it lay down the ideological bases for centralised power on which Roger II founded his kingdom. Focusing on the borders of ducal power, the chapter seeks to chart the ways in which the first experience of overarching rule, in name at least, of the ItaloNormans affected, and was affected by, the establishment of new polities in southern Italy.
