In the meantime, the question of the second soldiers was getting worse. And in Milan it exploded in revolt, which set in motion and shocked almost every social element of Lombardy and which especially targeted Archbishop Ariberto. Valvassori and archbishop ended up having recourse to Corrado. To which, other appeals came from the South, where, ten years earlier, as soon as the emperor had left Italy, Pandolfo IV of Capua had occupied Naples and had named himself duke in place of Sergius IV. Sergio, helped by the Gaetani and the Normans of Rainolfo Drengot, succeeded in returning to Naples. And when he returned, he gave Rainolfo, who had become his son-in-law, the village of Aversa, with lands and farmhouses around it, soon equipped with towers, moats and walls. The Normans, with marriages and with the possession of walled places and fertile lands, began to take root in the new homeland. Aversa, which, located between Naples and Capua, was to serve as a bulwark for the former, became the great attraction of the Normans beyond the Alps, the great center of the Italian Normans for several years. But Pandolfo returned to the rescue, made himself master of the duchy of Gaeta, forced the vassals of Montecassino to swear loyalty to him, earned the Normans of Aversa to himself, he enlisted others who had recently arrived, he also tried to have Benevento, he made plans over Salerno. Capua grew large, it seized the primacy among the Lombard principalities. It was then that Benedict IX, Montecassino, Guaimaro di Salerno turned to the emperor.
According to usprivateschoolsfinder, the emperor, urged from north to south, resumed the road to Italy in 1037. It was not well received by the Milanese people. Even Ariberto did not appear on the Pavia diet. And then Corrado banned him and took away his archbishopric, besieged Milan, although to no avail, published the Constitutio de feudis who assured the valvassori the inheritance of the fiefdoms in the male line and guaranteed them against any threat, placing them under his direct authority. Great excitement among the bishops! And they invited, against Corrado, Odo of Champagne. But the great seculars remained faithful. Several bishops were exiled to Germany. Parma was sacked. The pope had to excommunicate Aribert. On his way to the south, Corrado placed a German monk, Richerio, in Montecassino; he entered Capua from whence Pandolfo had fled to Constantinople; he entered Benevento; he endeavored to bind the prince of Salerno Guaimaro and the Normans of Aversa to himself, adopting that as his son and investing him with the principality of Capua, recognizing the county of Aversa to Rainolfo, even if in the dependencies of Capua. Then he went back to Lombardy and from there to Germany, leaving the greats of the kingdom to the siege of Milan. But Ariberto and the Milanese people stood up to him: the carroccio appeared. At the news of Corrado’s death, the besieging army broke up, Aribert went to Germany to reconcile with his successor: but the cives , which now appear in the foreground of Milanese life, chased him away together with the whole nobility. There was then a first glimpse of what the future struggles between the people and the nobility in the Communes will be; the people are strong within the walls, and they are right over their opponents; but it is weak in the open field. Masters of the countryside, the nobles can starve and extort the city. Peacemakers of the emperor came. The nobles returned to Milan. There will then be a compromise between the classes: the Municipality. Thus, in less than half a century, the minor nobility and the people came forward on the scene: that, the creation of the feudal regime; this, ancient force, now renewed, of the cities; that and this, constructive force of the new political order. Where, in the south, the constructive force of most decisive value will be another.
Here, after Pandolfo and the star of the Lombard principality of Capua, as well as that of Benevento, there was a rapid rise of Guaimaro and the principality of Salerno. Almost all of the rich and portuous coast of Campania south of Gaeta recognized Guaimaro as lord. Guaimaro had hired other bands of Normans who had come with the Altavilla brothers, who, soon joined the Normans of Drengot, turned to Puglia, where there was a new rebellion against Byzantium. The first undertaking, of decisive importance, was the capture of Melfi. And from Melfi, like the Saracens, the Normans, led by Atenolfo di Benevento and Guglielmo d’Altavilla, Popeye, occupied Apulian cities, won pitched battles over the Greeks in Canne and Montepeloso (1041). The mirage of Puglia served to give some unity and discipline to the broken desires of those adventurers. All of whom now gathered under Guaimaro of Salerno, while the Apulian rebels also declared themselves faithful. And Guaimaro assumed the title of Duke of Puglia and Calabria, while Popeye and other Norman leaders divided the cities and from allies of the Apulians they changed into lords. Thus, in fact, the county of Puglia arose, with Guaimaro the high lord, the Normans nominally in secondary order.
