Loritello was an Italo-Norman county along the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...

north of the

Gargano Gargano (, Gargano Apulian Italo-Romance arˈgæːnə is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming ...

, now called Rotello, in the Molise region. It was carved out of the eastern seaboard of the Principality of Benevento following the Battle of Civitate in 1053 by members of the Hauteville family. The last Count of Loritello died in 1184 and the title was never revived. Geoffrey of Hauteville, a younger brother of Humphrey, Count of Apulia, began the conquest of what would become Loritello when he attacked the Lombard county of Larino and captured the castle of Morrone in Samnium Guillamatum. In 1061, Geoffrey's son Robert received the title ''primo comiti de Loritello'': first count of Loritello. Robert continued expanding his county by conquering the county of Teate (modern Chieti), with which he invested his brother Drogo, and attacking

Ortona Ortona (Neapolitan language, Abruzzese: '; grc, Ὄρτων, Órtōn) is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italy, Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants. In 1943 Ortona was the site of a Battle o ...

, which was to become the chief objective of the count's later career. Robert was at odds with the church, whose Papal States neighboured Loritello. In 1080, Robert counted men, both Lombard and Norman, as far as the river Pescara as his vassals and

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII ( la, Gregorius VII; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana ( it, Ildebrando di Soana), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint ...

, concluding a truce with Robert's overlord,

Robert Guiscard Robert Guiscard (; Modern ; – 17 July 1085) was a Norman adventurer remembered for the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, went on to become count and then duke of Apulia and Calabri ...

, recognised Loritello as Robert's and requested that papal lands be treated with respect. In the early twelfth century, Loritello was extended across the Fortore to include Bovino and Dragonara. Robert's successors, Robert II and William, allied themselves with the Church and the Empire and opposed their own overlords, for which reasons Loritello was confiscated. It remained a part of the

royal demesne Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...

of the

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily ( la, Regnum Siciliae; it, Regno di Sicilia; scn, Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 un ...

until William the Bad granted it to Robert of Bassunvilla in 1154. Under Robert III, Loritello enjoined near complete autonomy from royal officials and the counts retained the right to administer justice (''justiciaria''). The power of the county peaked during the regency of

William the Good William II (December 115311 November 1189), called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. From surviving sources William's character is indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his ...

, but afterwards declined, and when Robert III died in 1184, the county was not regranted.

Counts of Loritello

Sources

*Matthew, Donald. ''The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks)'', 1992.
History of the Norman World
{{coord missing, Italy Italian city-states Norman conquest of southern Italy States and territories established in 1053