Political, social, and institutional dynamics in a “distant” papal city: Benevento (1300-1400)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/1593-2214/8044Keywords:
Middle Ages, 14th-15th Centuries, Papal States, Benevento, Urban HistoryAbstract
In southern Italy, Benevento was the only city that avoided the Norman conquest. Since 1077 it was under the authority of the Church of Rome, thus becoming, together with its small neighbouring territory, a papal enclave within the Kingdom of Sicily. This essay, through the analysis of some aspects such as institutions, factions, individual power, territory, relations with monarchic authorities, shows how the political activity of this urban community remained a constant feature in the following centuries. Despite its sharp internal division into two opposing partes, between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century Benevento established bodies of self-government sanctioned by the city statutes, increased privileges and collective freedoms, defended the territory of the enclave and the assets of its inhabitants placed across the border. This was possible, above all, thanks to the incessant activity of negotiation carried out by the elites of Benevento with both the Pope and the Neapolitan rulers, who occupied the city on several occasions.
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