John II of Amalfi

Who was John II of Amalfi?

John II was the duke of Amalfi from 1029 to 1069 with multiple interruptions. He was the son of Sergius II and Maria, sister of Pandulf IV of Capua. He was the last significant duke of Amalfi before the Norman conquest of 1073.

In 1014, he was named as co-regent and successor to his father. In 1028, he and his father fled to Constantinople while Maria and her younger son, Manso II, John's brother, usurped power at the instigation of her brother Pandulf. In 1029, John, but not Sergius, returned and reasserted his authority, deposing his mother and brother.

In 1031, John named his son Sergius III co-regent and successor and he received the title of patrikios from the Byzantine emperor, as his father had in 1010. In April or May 1034, John was forced to flee Amalfi again, this time because Pandulf had conquered Gaeta and was threatening the remaining coastal cities, including Naples, to which John fled, for Duke Sergius IV of Naples was likewise sheltering the deposed John V of Gaeta. Pandulf married off John's sister to Ranulf Drengot, the Norman mercenary who had recently been widowered by the duke of Naples' sister.