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Principato Ultra (or Principato Ulteriore) was an administrative division of the Kingdom of Naples and, later, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (where it was the 4th province). It was established in 1287 following the division of the pre-existing giustizierato of Principato e Terra Beneventana into two distinct territories: Principato Ultra and Principato Citra.

The territory of Principato Ultra roughly corresponded to the historical-geographical district of Irpinia, although it lacked any socio-political link with the ancient Samnite tribe of the Irpini, who had already been fully Romanized since the imperial era. The establishment of Principato Ultra was instead driven by the legal-administrative needs of the Angevin period, which led to a reorganization of local powers and offices within the kingdom.

History

Creation of the Giustizierato

In 1287, King Charles II of Anjou ordered the division of the pre-existing Frederician giustizierato of Principato e Terra Beneventana into two entities: the Principatus ultra serras Montorii ("Principato beyond the mountains of Montoro", to the north) and the Principatus citra serras Montorii ("Principato on this side of the mountains of Montoro", to the south). The border between the two new giustizierati, which later became known respectively as Principato Ultra (or Ulteriore) and Principato Citra (or Citeriore), was marked by the Monti Picentini.

The territory of the new Giustizierato of Principato Ultra included most of the present-day provinces of Avellino and Benevento (with the exception of the city of Benevento itself, which was an exclave of the Papal States), as well as some municipalities belonging to the modern provinces of Foggia and Potenza.

Historiographical controversy over the capital

Due to the silence of primary sources, it is not possible to establish with certainty the original seat of the giustizierato of Principato Ultra. This has given rise to a long dispute among local scholars, aimed at identifying the first effective capital of the province. However, modern historiography, by critically analyzing the available data for each giustizierato of the ancient Kingdom of Naples, has allowed the issue to be framed in a broader and less parochial light.

On the occasion of the first centenary of the transfer to Avellino (1906), the then president of the province, Michele Capozzi, published a work entitled Avellino e il centenario della legge 8 agosto 1806, in which he argued with some emphasis that the current capital had been such "by right or in fact" from its origins. This position was based on the statements—sometimes contradictory and fleeting—of two Avellino scholars, Scipione Bellabona and Serafino Pionati, as well as the Neapolitan historian Camillo Porzio. According to Bellabona, Avellino was initially the seat of the Royal Court (Regia Udienza), until the purchase of the fief by Marino Caracciolo made it impossible, by privilege, for royal officials to reside there; it was then that Montefusco assumed the role of capital, maintaining it until 1806. This hypothesis was accepted by Francesco Scandone and subsequently taken up—without particular critical scrutiny—by other authors.

However, the claims of those supporting Avellino as the original seat do not take into account the documentation provided by the historian and jurist from Montefusco, Eliseo Danza, who attests to the presence of the Royal Court in Montefusco at least from 1496, the year in which Ferdinand II of Naples granted certain graces to the local Universitas, explicitly defining Montefuscolo capo della Provincia ("Montefusco as head of the Province"). The same Danza reports, however, that the "presides" (governors) of the province sometimes moved temporarily to Avellino or Montemiletto, only to be recalled to Montefusco.

A document from the Swabian era suggests, moreover, that the Giustiziere of Principato e Terra Beneventana had already settled in Montefusco, at least for a certain period. On the occasion of the Aragonese occupation of 1440, however, the seat of the questore (or treasurer) of Principato Ultra appears to have been Benevento, at that time temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Naples.

Asking where the seat of the Royal Court was located before the second half of the 16th century risks being a poorly formulated question, conditioned by localistic views. In the Middle Ages, in fact, public power was primarily identified with the judicial function, which was exercised in an itinerant manner.

The very idea of a provincial "capital" is foreign to the medieval conception of territorial power. Before the affirmation of the modern state, institutions had minimal apparatuses and did not require stable administrative seats. Even in the 17th and 18th centuries, the presence of the Royal Court in Montefusco materialized in only two structures: the tribunal (with an adjoining prison) and the barracks of the Compagnia di Campagna. At that time, the choice of the administrative seat was mainly based on geographical and political considerations, aimed at balancing the needs of the populations and the claims of the feudal lords, without any regard for the demographic size of the centers. A census from 1622 shows, for example, that Montefusco—although it was the seat of the Royal Court—had only 300 hearths, compared to 1,899 in Ariano, at that time by far the most populous center in Principato Ultra.

Establishment of the province

From the Aragonese period onwards, the giustizierato officially assumed the name "province", although this did not entail substantial changes in its administrative functions. The figure of the giustiziere was gradually replaced by that of the provincial preside, assisted by the Royal Court. From 1581 to 1806, the preside of the province and the officials of the Royal Court resided permanently—except for brief interruptions—in the town of Montefusco, which became the effective seat of the provincial judicial authority. In that year, in fact, the fief of Avellino was purchased by Marino Caracciolo, II Duke of Atripalda, who included among the contractual conditions the prohibition of royal officials residing within the fief.

During the same period, the city of Ariano was instead subject to the lordship of the Gesualdo, from whom it managed to redeem itself only in 1585, when it was incorporated into the royal demesne and obtained the title of royal city, thus being the only one in Principato Ultra to enjoy such status.

During the revolt of Masaniello, in the years 1647–1648, it was precisely Ariano that temporarily hosted the preside of the province and the entire delegation of the Royal Court of Principato Ultra, following the occupation of the main centers by the insurgent forces.

Modern era

With the arrival of the French in the Kingdom of Naples, on 8 August 1806, and the consequent reform of the administrative apparatus, the Intendancy of Principato Ultra was established, with its capital in Avellino. On that same day, with Law No. 132 of 1806 on the division and administration of the provinces of the Kingdom, King Joseph Bonaparte introduced a new territorial organization inspired by the French administrative model.

In the following five years, between 1806 and 1811, a series of royal decrees completed the implementation of the new provincial system, specifying the list of municipalities included in each province and defining the borders, districts, and circondari. On 1 January 1817, the administrative structure was definitively formalized with the promulgation of the Law concerning the administrative circumscription of the Provinces of the Royal Domains on this side of the Faro, issued on 1 May 1816. At the same time, the seat of the administrative bodies was transferred from Montefusco to Avellino, where the former Dominican convent was designated to house the new prefecture.

Suppression of the province

thumb|upright=2|Attilio Zuccagni-Orlandini, Province of Principato Ulteriore
(map accompanying the work Corografia fisica, storica e statistica d'Italia e delle sue isole)

On 25 October 1860, the pro-dictator of Naples, Giorgio Pallavicino, issued the decree establishing the new province of Benevento, while postponing to a subsequent law the definition of the territorial circumscriptions, with the declared intention of enlarging its territory proportionally to the other Provinces. During the same period, the province of Avellino was also created. On 17 December, through Royal Decree No. 4498 on the annexation of the Neapolitan provinces to the Kingdom of Sardinia, the province of Principato Ultra was suppressed along with the other provinces of the Kingdom.

On 17 February 1861, Prince Eugene of Savoy-Carignano, Lieutenant General of the King in the southern provinces, on the proposal of Liborio Romano's appointee to the Lieutenant Council, definitively approved the creation of the province of Benevento and decreed the definitive detachment of circondari and municipalities from several provinces, also fixing compensations for those that had suffered losses, with the exception of Terra di Lavoro, which, despite the cessions, still had a population of 727,000 inhabitants.

Administrative divisions

The province was divided into successive administrative levels, hierarchically dependent on the previous one. Immediately below the province were the districts, which were in turn divided into circondari. The circondari consisted of municipalities, the basic unit of the political-administrative structure of the modern state, to which villages could belong. Villages were predominantly rural centers.

The province included 3 districts, divided into a total of 34 circondari, 135 municipalities, and 13 villages. In 1860, the subdivisions were as follows:

Intendants

List of the intendants of the province of Principato Ultra during the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies:

Kingdom of Naples (1806–1814)

Kingdom of Naples (1814–1816)

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816–1860)

See also

• List of princes of Salerno
• Irpinia

Bibliography