Jonathan (or Jonathas, Italian ''Gionata''; died July 1121), a member of a cadet branch of the

Drengot family The Drengots were a Normans, Norman family of mercenaries, one of the first to head to Southern Italy to fight in the service of the Lombards. They became the most prominent family after the Hauteville family, Hautevilles. Origins The family came f ...

, was the Duke of Gaeta from 1113 until his death. He is known from the '' Codex Caietanus'' to have been in the fourth year of his minority in 1116 and the seventh of his rule in 1119. There are three theories of his paternity. He may have been the son of Count Jonathan I of Carinola or his grandson by an unnamed son, or else the grandson of Count Bartholomew of Carinola. He was under the regency of his cousin or uncle, Count Richard of Carinola. After the death of Duke Andrew of Gaeta without heirs in 1113, the duchy escheated to Prince

Robert I of Capua Robert I (died 1120), count of Aversa and prince of Capua from 1106, on the death of his elder and heirless brother Richard, was the second eldest son of Jordan I of Capua and Gaitelgrima, daughter of Guaimar IV of Salerno. He tried to be the ...

, who bestowed it on Jonathan and appointed Richard his regent. As a sign of Gaeta's semi-independence, between March 1113 and July 1114 he and Richard issued charters dated to the joint-reign (1092–1118) of the Byzantine emperors

Alexios I Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinization of names, Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor ...

and John II. The succession of Jonathan was not without incident. The widow of Duke

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...

tried with her new husband to seize the duchy, but Richard of Carinola succeeded in getting control of it after a short war. There are no Gaetan ''

follari The follis (plural ''folles''; it, follaro, ar, فلس, Fels) was a type of coin in the Roman and Byzantine traditions. Roman coin In the past, the term ''follis'' was used to describe a large bronze Roman coin introduced in about 294 (the ...

'' (copper coins) definitively attributable to the reign of Jonathan. Specimens with the inscriptions IOAN and IOHS DVX may belong to him, but are more usually ascribed to John IV (991–1012).

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * {{s-end 1121 deaths Italo-Normans Dukes of Gaeta 12th-century Italian nobility Year of birth unknown