Richard I Drengot (died
1078) was a count of
Aversa (
1049-1078) and
prince of Capua (
1058-1078).
He was the son of
Asclettin, count of
Acerenza, younger brother of
Asclettin, count of Aversa, and nephew of
Rainulf Drengot, the
Norman adventurer who had first travelled to
southern Italy in
1017 and progressed to set up the first Norman state in the region (
1030). Richard arrived in the Mezzogiorno shortly after Rainulf's death in
1046 with a coterie of forty knights.
His first years in the south were not remarkable. He was considered a threat by the reigning count in Aversa,
Rainulf Trincanocte, and he took up service with
Humphrey of Hauteville, brother of
Drogo of Hauteville, count of Apulia, and then Sarule of Genzano. His plundering and pillaging with the latter caused Trincanocte to grant him his brother Asclettin's lands, but he incited Drogo to throw him in prison and there he languished until, on Trincanocte's death, the infant Count
Herman needed a competent
regent. The suzerain of Aversa and Apulia, Prince
Guaimar IV of Salerno, procured Richard's release and he was set up as Herman's guardian in
1048. Soon, Herman disappears from the records and Richard is titling himself count.
He was present, in
1053, at the
Battle of Civitate, where he commanded the right wing against the
Lombards of the papal army. He charged first that day and routed the Lombard contingent, pursuing them a long distance before turning back to assist Humphrey and
Robert Guiscard, turning the tide in favour of the Normans.
Richard was constantly seeking territorial aggrandisement through war against his Lombard neighbours,
Pandulf VI of Capua and Guaimar's son and successor,
Gisulf II of Salerno. He pushed back the borders of the latter until there was little left of the once great principality but the city of
Salerno itself and when the weak prince of Capua died in
1057, he immediately besieged
Capua and took the princely title (
1058) from Pandulf's brother,
Landulf VIII, but left the keys to the city in Lombard hands for at least four years more, until
12 May 1062. He betrothed his daughter to the son of
Atenulf I, Duke of Gaeta, but when the boy died before the marriage took place, he demanded the
morgengab anyway. The duke refused and consequently Richard besieged and took
Aquino, one of the few feudatories of Gaeta remaining.
Desiderius of Benevento, the abbot of
Montecassino, convinced Richard to extort only 400
sous from the duke (
1058), however.
In February
1059, Hildebrand, the future
Pope Gregory VII, then only a high-ranking member of the
Papal Curia, travelled to Capua to enlist his aid on behalf of the reforming
Pope Nicholas II against the
antipope Benedict X. Soon, Richard was besieging poor Bendedict in
Galeria and, in
1059, Nicholas convened a synod at
Melfi where he confirmed Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia,
Calabria, and
Sicily and Richard as count of Aversa and prince of Capua. Richard swore allegiance to the papacy and respect for papal territory, completely transforming the political loyalties of the south of Italy and removing the few remaining independent Greek and Lombard princes and the
Holy Roman Emperor from the picture.
In
1061 he, again at Hildebrand's request, militarily installed the reformers' papal candidate
Alexander II against the claims of an antipope, this time
Honorius II. He was rapidly becoming a popemaker, though, in
1066, still bent on expanding in all directions his power, he marched on
Rome itself, but was beaten back by the pope's
Tuscan allies.
In
1062, Richard sent his son
Jordan to take Gaeta from
Atenulf II, but Atenulf was allowed to continue personal rule until
1064. Though, in that year, Richard and Jordan appropriated the ducal and consular titles of the Gaetan rulers. Richard quelled a later rebellion of Atenulf's and continued to expand his territory into the
Campania, as far as Rome.
In
1071, when Robert Guiscard was away besieging
Palermo, his chief barons,
Abelard and
Herman, sons of his brother Humphrey, Peter, lord of
Trani, and the lord of
Giovinazzo rebelled with the support of Richard of Capua and Gisulf of Salerno. Though Robert quickly dispelled all threats to his power from within, he took ill and could not make an expedition against Richard, who was soon confirmed in his possessions by and allied with the new pope, Gregory VII, Hildebrand.
In
1076, in response to the
Emperor Henry IV's deposition of the pope, Robert and Richard each sent ambassadors to the other. They met midway and arranged a meeting of the two rulers at Montecassinos later that year. An alliance was formed and, the pope, by excommunicating the emperor, having proven capable of taking care of himself, the two Norman leaders sat down to besiege Gisulf in Salerno. The siege was successful and Gisulf fled to Capua, where he tried to stir up Richard against Robert, who had kept Salerno, but to no avail. Richard began to besiege
Naples, still independent, with the aid of Robert's naval blockade. Then, on
3 March 1078, the pope excommunicated Robert and Richard and soon after Richard lay dying in Capua. He quickly reconciled with the church and died. His eldest son, the aforementioned Jordan, who had been invading ecclesiastic domains in the
Abruzzi at the time, travelled to Rome to renew his fealty to the papacy and be confirmed in his father's titles and possessions. Naples remained untaken.
He left a younger son named
Jonathan. 
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