Pandulf IV of Capua

In 1018, the Byzantine catapan Basil Boioannes destroyed the Lombard army of Melus of Bari and his Norman allies at Cannae.

This victory brought the Byzantines recognition by all the princes of the Mezzogiorno, which had previously owed allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.

He assisted Boioannes in capturing Melus' brother-in-law Dattus' tower on the Garigliano in 1020, but this brought a large army down from Germany.

Pandulf IV was brought in chains to the Emperor Henry II, who almost executed him before Pilgrim intervened on his behalf.

He was released by Emperor Conrad II in 1024 at the request of Prince Guaimar III of Salerno, who was hoping for a new ally.

For all this, he was called by the chronicler Aimé of Monte Cassino a fortissime lupe, the Wolf of the Abruzzi, a man of "wily and wicked deeds".

In 1047, a watershed year in the history of the Mezzogiorno and the Lombards, Emperor Henry III, Conrad's son, came down and made the Drengot and Hauteville possessions his direct vassals.