Trinità di Cava in 1111. Conflict resolution and definition of a border

Abstract

At the beginning of the 12th century, in the course of a few years, the dukes of Puglia and the lords of Nocera put an end to a period of contrasts and redrew the map of powers in the area North of Salerno. The Trinità di Cava became the core of this new balance. Confirming its already evident inclination to act as a mediator in the conflicts between secular powers, the Trinità directed the agreements between the parts to its advantage through the payment of large amounts of money. Thus, it came into possession of an important castle and of the whole of the land of the involved parties inside a large area, delimited on in this occasion by neat boundaries. However, such area, lacking military defences in its Northern part, at the time was neither a territory subjected to a lordship nor a free space; it was, rather, a compensation area, avoiding contacts between the two rival powers. Only several decades later, when the Cava area was no more a borderland between different rules, the Trinità got hold of it and built up new fortifications, thus giving its presence in the area a lordship character.