History of the Kingdom of Italy, 888-1014

Prologue: The Previous Kingdoms of Italy

Between the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. and the proclamation of the united Kingdom of Italy in 1861, there were several kingdoms which were known as the Kingdom of Italy. The most important of these, from the standpoint of Italian independence and freedom, was the independent Kingdom of Italy, which lasted from 888 until its final annexation by the Holy Roman Empire in 1014, a period known as the “Reign of the Italic Kings”.

In order to provide historical context, it is necessary to give brief overviews of the previous states that were also known as the Kingdom of Italy and their relationships to each other.

The Kingdom of Italy Under Odoacer (476-493)

The first Kingdom of Italy was founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire by Flavius Odoacer, a semi-Romanized mercenary of barbarian origin who mutinied against his Roman employer and proclaimed himself ‘King of Italy’ (Rex Italiae) in 476, after deposing Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman Emperor. This Kingdom of Italy comprised all of Italy except Sardinia and Corsica, but included within its borders Rhaetia, Noricum and Dalmatia.

Very few noticeable changes took place in Italian society during this period; Odoacer ruled with the support of the Roman Senate and effectively replaced the Emperor with himself, while the already-existing Roman military, political and social structure remained essentially unaltered, the only significant difference being that Odoacer and his barbarian mercenary army forced Roman landowners to relinquish one-third of their lands or at least pay one-third of their revenues.

The Kingdom of Italy Under the Goths (493-553)

After reigning only seventeen years, Odoacer was deposed and assassinated in 493 by the invading Theodoric, an Ostrogoth, who took over the Kingdom of Italy with the approval of Eastern Emperor Zeno, who by intrigue had betrayed Italy to the barbarians in order to divert the Ostrogoths away from his eastern dominions and secure himself as the sole emperor in Constantinople.

Theodoric, who received a Roman education, preserved the existing Roman political structure in Italy and modeled his court on that of a Roman Emperor. However, rather than ruling in the name of Imperial Rome or a single nation, he ruled in the name of two distinct peoples: he assumed the title ‘King of the Goths and Romans’ (Gothorum Romanorumque rex). Under Theodoric the kingdom was variously called the ‘Kingdom of Italy’ (Regnum Italiae) or the ‘Empire of Italy’ (Imperium Italiae). This Italian Kingdom or Empire held all of the same territories which had already belonged to the Kingdom of Italy under Odoacer, but with the notable additions of Provence and Pannonia, which were conquered and added to Italy's territory by Theodoric.

Although Theodoric was semi-Romanized, he was also an Arian and conscious of his barbarian origins. He promoted the principle of peaceful coexistence between Catholic Romans and Arian Goths, rather than conversion and assimilation. The Goths observed their own laws and followed the heresy of Arianism; they were forbidden from attending Roman schools; and intermarriage between Romans and Goths was prohibited. Thus there was no attempt at assimilation on the part of the Ostrogoths. Despite the existence of ethnic and religious antagonisms, the two peoples lived in general peace, although separate from each other. Toward the end of Theodoric's reign, however, he began to persecute Catholics and the relationship between the Romans and Goths worsened. However this short-lived persecution was not continued by his Arian successors.

During the Ostrogothic period the Goths confiscated one-third of the land (meaning one-third of those lands in which the Goths settled; not one-third of all the lands in Italy), usurping the same estates which Odoacer had usurped. They also assumed control of military affairs, while Romans were generally excluded from military service, with some exceptions. However, civil administration remained exclusively in the hands of the Romans, and Roman institutions such as the Senate remained intact. The Goths merely formed a military class; the actual government of the Kingdom of Italy remained in the hands of local Roman officials. The Romans or Italians thus retained their own laws, customs, dress, language, personal freedom and two-thirds of their lands, in addition to holding civil administration, albeit they were ultimately subject to the Ostrogoth military class and the king.

The Ostrogoths were soon destroyed by the Gothic Wars however and the kingdom came to an end in 553. At this time, all of Italy and Dalmatia was claimed for the Eastern Roman Empire by Emperor Justinian, and the Ostrogoths were expelled. However, Italy was ruined and weakened in the process, and a mere fifteen years later the Longobards invaded. With the Longobard invasion, Italy's ancient political unity was shattered and the country would remain divided for the next thirteen centuries.

The Kingdom of Italy Under the Longobards (568-774)

The second Kingdom of Italy — or third, depending on whether one considers Theodoric's kingdom as a continuation of the one established by Odoacer — was founded and ruled by the Longobards, who were regarded as one of the most cruel and least civilized of the invading Germanic tribes.

The Longobards invaded Italy in 568 at the invitation of Narses, a treacherous Byzantine general. After having abused his office for personal gain and mistreating the people of Italy, a Roman delegation appealed to the Emperor, demanding that Narses be dismissed from his post. After being removed, the unpopular Narses, driven by revenge, betrayed Italy and delivered the country to the barbarians. This betrayal received the tacit sanction of Emperor Justin II, who sent no assistance to Italy, and was met with indifference by the Byzantine garrisons, which offered almost no resistance to the invaders. In this way, the Longobards conquered large parts of Italy away from the Romans and established the Kingdom of the Longobards under their leader Alboin.

The Longobard kings initially used the title ‘King of the Longobards’ (Rex gentis Langobardorum). But already by 591, Agilulf bore the title ‘King of All Italy’ (Rex totius Italiae) and the Longobard Kingdom came to be known as the Kingdom of All Italy (Regnum totius Italiae), even though the Longobards never actually managed to exert their power over all of Italy — something which no single ruler would accomplish again until 1861. At its greatest territorial extent under Aistulf in the 8th century, the Kingdom of All Italy comprised almost all of the historical regions of Italy except the areas of Latium, Lower Calabria, Salento, Sicily, Sardinia, and the coastal enclaves around Naples and Venice.

Unlike the Gothic period, during which time Roman institutions were undisturbed and the Romans retained their civil and administrative power, after the brutal Longobard invasion the Roman political structure collapsed, many Roman patricians were killed, and the people of Italy were reduced to being tributaries in their own country; they were completely excluded from the military and forbidden from carrying weapons. Several of the Longobard kings, who were Arians, also persecuted the Catholic Church. Some of these invaders were even still pagans; the Abbey of Montecassino was destroyed by them in 577 or 589. Under the Longobards the Romans did continue to occupy lower positions as notaries, local judges or municipal magistrates over their own Roman communities and cities, and were also permitted to retain two-thirds of their estates, but they were forbidden from exercising military functions and from occupying higher governing positions, such as the dukedom or the kingship. The Romans were therefore juridically free, but of inferior political status.

The Romans however were able to maintain a strong cultural influence through schools of higher learning and especially through the Catholic Church, which in Italy was composed almost exclusively of Romans. Although the Longobards assimilated to a great extent over the course of the next couple centuries, abandoning their Germanic language for Latin, converting to Roman Catholicism, and adopting Roman titles and dress, they still adhered to their own tribal law, while the Romans or Italians adhered to Roman law and continued to have their own judges and magistrates. Therefore despite the Longobards' partial assimilation, an official distinction was still made between the Longobards and the Romans, including also the legal obligation of Roman landowners to deliver one third of their produce to the Longobards as a tribute. Thus the Longobards remained a small military aristocracy, segregated from the rest of the Italian population, with their own legal code and their own ethnic consciousness, and did not identify themselves with the indigenous Roman-Italic nation.

The greatest attempt at assimilation was made by Ratchis, who extended greater rights to the Roman population, which far outnumbered the Longobards and formed the overwhelming majority of Italy's population. Instead of calling himself ‘King of the Longobards’, he assumed the Roman title Princeps. He was also the first Longobard king to marry a Roman woman, whose name was Tassia. With Tassia the Italians finally had their own Queen of Italy — the first and only Roman to become Queen during the Longobard period. Ratchis was deposed by his brother Aistulf, who was a staunch anti-Roman. Aistulf revived the title ‘King of the Longobards’, which had been previously abandoned. He also prohibited any contact between Romans and Longobards, both commercial and social, and the attempts at assimilation came to a halt. This situation persisted for the remainder of Longobard rule.

The Kingdom of Italy Under Charlemagne and the Franks (774-888)

The Papal States, a sovereign territory ruled by the pope, was formally established with the Donation of Pepin in 756. This region, previously under nominal Byzantine suzerainty but de facto independent, remained in Roman hands and always resisted the Longobards, who many times attempted to conquer the region. Desiderius, the last Longobard king, invaded the territory again in 772. By this time the Byzantines had already abandoned Rome to its own fate; moreover, for several decades the Emperors had been zealous Iconoclasts, conducting violent persecutions against Catholics. Faced with this dilemma, Pope Adrian I requested the aid of Charlemagne and the Franks. In 773-774 Charlemagne invaded Italy, dethroned Desiderius and assumed control of the Kingdom of Italy, which from that point forward was ruled by the Franks — more specifically by the Carolingian dynasty.

This Kingdom of Italy, also known as the Italic Kingdom (Regnum Italicum), could be considered a continuation of the one ruled by the Longobards, much as the Kingdom ruled by Theodoric was a continuation of the one established by Odoacer, but some prefer to think of the Carolingian Kingdom of Italy as a distinct kingdom: the third or fourth Kingdom of Italy. However, the geography of the Kingdom remained almost identical to the one ruled by the Longobards, with the exception that the old southern part of the Kingdom — the Duchy of Benevento — became an independent principality, which neither the Franks nor the independent Italic kings were ever able to definitively control. The political and administrative structure as it existed under the Longobards also remained essentially unchanged, except that the Longobard dukes were replaced by Frankish counts.

The most notable change which occurred in Italy during the Carolingian period was the de facto emancipation of the Roman or Italian population and the gradual disappearance of the distinction between Longobards and Romans. The Longobards and Romans both became equal subjects under the Franks; all free men shared the same rights and obligations, including obligatory military service and the right to bear arms. Rights, privileges and obligations were now based upon social status instead of ethnic origin. Thus the discriminatory measures enforced by the Longobards against the native population since 568 were abolished. The Romans and Longobards still continued to follow their own laws, but after being defeated and stripped of their power in 774, the Longobards — who formed only a small population numbering some thousands — were finally forced to gradually assimilate into the much larger Italic population over the course of the next century.

Under the Franks the Kingdom of Italy was not independent, but was a constituent kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. Although it had a considerable degree of autonomy, and was politically defined as its own kingdom with its own king, administration and self-government, it was nonetheless subject to the ultimate authority of the Carolingian Emperor, and most of the aristocracy was of Frankish extraction. Between 810-818 King Bernardo I attempted to establish an independent government in Italy. As punishment, he was charged with treason, deposed, blinded and killed by Emperor Louis the Pious. Thereafter the throne of Italy was almost always occupied by the Carolingian Emperor.


Chapter 1: The Fall of the Carolingian Empire — The Kingdom of Italy Becomes Independent

Upon the death of Charles the Fat in January 888, the Carolingian Empire collapsed and was divided into five independent kingdoms. One of these independent kingdoms was the Kingdom of Italy.

Already two months before his death, Charles had been deposed by the diet of Tribur in November 887, leaving a vacancy in the Italian throne. The vacancy was filled by Berengario I of Friuli, whom Charles had nominated as his successor on his deathbed.

Berengario was born at Cividale del Friuli around 850. In 874 he became Marchese of Friuli. On January 2, 888, six days before the death of Charles the Fat, a diet was held by the Italian counts and bishops in Pavia, the capital of the kingdom. In accordance with Charles' dying wishes, they chose Berengario as the new King of Italy and invested him with the Iron Crown. But his legitimacy was soon contested by the Marchese of Ivrea, the Marchese of Tuscany and the Duke of Spoleto.

Although Berengario was considered the successor of Charles the Fat, and therefore his Kingdom was regarded by contemporaries as a continuation of the Carolingian Kingdom of Italy, the fact that Italy was now an independent Kingdom with contesting claimants means that historians view it as a separate kingdom entirely: the third Kingdom of Italy — or fourth, or even fifth, depending on how one numbers the previous kingdoms.


Chapter 2: The Confines of the Kingdom

In 888 the western and eastern borders of the Kingdom of Italy corresponded very closely to today's Italy and to the previous kingdoms of Italy, stretching from the Maritime Alps in the west to the Julian Alps in the east, encompassing the Nice Prealps and the Carso down to the Quarnaro Gulf, covering the current-day Piedmont, Nizzardo, Istria, and all the regions in between. The westernmost city was Nice (Nizza), while to the west of Nice, just west of the Varo River, was the smaller town of Grassa. The easternmost city was Cividale del Friuli, although smaller towns located farther east included Trieste, Tolmino, Idria, Vipacco and the towns of Istria, which were all part of the Italian Kingdom.

To the north the borders reached the Great St. Bernard and St. Gotthard passes, with the Aosta Valley and the modern-day Ticino well within its borders, and included also the southern valleys of modern-day Grisons (Grigioni), namely Calanca, Mesolcina and Poschiavo. In the northeast the border followed the valley of the Adige up to Formicaria (Castel Firmiano), just south of Bolzano, and therefore included the southern towns of modern-day South Tyrol (Alto Adige), such as Salorno, Egna, Appiano and Caldaro.

On the Tyrrhenian side of the peninsula the southern boundaries stretched down to the Paglia River towards the Tuscan-Umbrian-Latium border near Acquapendente (Province of Viterbo), where papal territory began, and on the Adriatic side reached the Trigno and Biferno rivers, enclosing the Exarchate, the Pentapolis and the Duchy of Spoleto within its borders, although the popes claimed rights over the Exarchate and the Pentapolis, while the dukes of Spoleto often exercised de facto autonomy. The islands of Corsica and Elba were also part of the Italian Kingdom.

With few exceptions, these were more or less the stable northern, western and eastern boundaries of Italy ever since the time of Emperor Augustus. Certain northern areas such as Bolzano and Sabiona, which were previously part of Italy, were already conquered by the Bavarians in the previous century. Meanwhile the southern borders of the Kingdom of Italy were cut short due to the presence of the Byzantine Empire, the rising Papal States, and the breakup of the Principality of Benevento into three separate principalities: Benevento, Salerno and Capua. The existence of these states prevented the Kingdom of Italy from reaching the toe of the Italian peninsula. Moreover, Sardinia was in the process of dividing itself into four independent giudicati, while the conquest of Sicily by the Muslims — which was already almost completed by the time of King Berengario — prevented any possibility of uniting Sicily to the independent Italic Kingdom.


Chapter 3: Regalia and Titles

The Iron Crown

Since the 5th century the kings of Italy were crowned with the famous Iron Crown (Corona Ferrea), the oldest royal insignia of Christendom, which is at once a symbol of regal power and a Christian relic. According to legend, the Iron Crown derives from a fourth-century helmet worn by Emperor Constantine. The core of the crown is a large iron ring or band said to be forged from one of the sacred nails used to crucify Christ. The sacred nails were discovered with the true cross in the year 326 by Constantine's mother St. Helena and brought back to Rome. One of the nails was melted into a diadem and bejeweled by Roman goldsmiths, thus forming the base of the modern Iron Crown. It was then mounted onto a war helmet as a gift for Emperor Constantine so that he would be protected in battle.

Towards the end of the fourth century the Iron Crown was detatched from Constantine's helmet and was brought to Milan by Emperor Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over the whole Roman Empire and also the same who proclaimed Christianity the sole official religion of the Roman Empire. Upon his death in 395 the first historical mention of the crown was documented in a funeral oration by St. Ambrose. The Iron Crown was then held in a church in Milan for nearly a century when Theodoric the Goth invaded Italy and had himself crowned with it in 493. From that point forward all the kings of Italy wore the crown, as it passed to each de facto ruler of Italy: Ostrogoths, Longobards, the Franks, the independent Italic Kings, the Holy Roman Emperors and Napoleon.

The Royal Title

The Longobard kings used different titles, including ‘King of the Longobards’ (Rex Langobardorum) and ‘King of All Italy’ (Rex totius Italiae). When Charlemagne defeated the Longobards and assumed control of the Kingdom of Italy, he styled himself ‘King of the Franks and the Longobards’ (Rex Francorum et Langobardorum). Under the Carolingian Franks the kings continued to use the title ‘King of the Longobards’, even though the country was officially known as the ‘Kingdom of Italy’ (Regnum Italiae) or ‘Italic Kingdom’ (Regnum Italicum).

By the 9th century ‘King of the Longobards’ had lost its tribal meaning (according to the ancient Germanic conception of kingship, perhaps derived from their nomadic past, a ruler was king of a people, not of a territory) and the title had by then become synonymous with ‘King of Italy’ (that is to say, king of a country and not of one particular tribe). Under the Franks the distinction between Longobards and Romans had gradually ceased to exist, since after being subjugated by the Franks in the 8th century the vanquished Longobards were finally forced to assimilate into the much larger Italic population and eventually disappeared. Thus the title ‘King of the Longobards’ persisted merely as a formal tradition, despite no longer having any tribal significance or ethnic connection to the Longobards.

Nonetheless during the period of the independent Kingdom of Italy, in order to more accurately reflect the Italian nation and emphasize the independence of the country from foreign powers, a new title was introduced: ‘King of the Italics’ or ‘King of the Italians’ (Rex Italicorum). This is the title which was used by the independent Italian kings, known as the Italic Kings, from 888 to 1014. It was also later adopted by Emperor Otto I, in an attempt to legitimize himself as the ruler of Italy.


Chapter 4: Early Claimants to the Throne

Berengario's long 36-year reign was very turbulent, as no less than seven men made claims to the Italian throne. After Berengario's death multiple claimants continued to battle over the Iron Crown. The various feudal families of Italy and foreign pretenders from beyond the Alps all aspired to the crown of Italy, conspiring, intriguing and enlisting armies to fight each other. Therefore this period in Italian history is known as the period of the “Feudal Anarchy”.

The first claimant to challenge Berengario was Guido, Duke of Spoleto, who had initially recognized Berengario as King of Italy. Guido's original ambitions were not in Italy, but in France; he had himself crowned as King of the Franks at Langres in March 888 by his own relative Fulk, Archbishop of Reims. However, seeing that he had no support in France, he instead returned to Italy where he sought to seize the Italian crown in violation of the oath he had made in which he recognized Berengario as king. Guido, in an act of treason and betrayal, now led an army against Berengario, which clashed near Brescia at the end of 888. Here Berengario managed to contain Guido's troops. They fought again however at the Trebbia river, near Piacenza, shortly after Epiphany in 889. This time Berengario was defeated in a crushing loss.

In the Gesta Berengarii, an epic poem written by an anonymous chronicler around 923, the conflict was described in terms of national independence and Italian identity: Berengario was defined as an “Italic hero” (heros italicus), as opposed to the rival contender Guido of Spoleto, who was referred to as a “Gallic tyrant” (tyrannicus gallicus).

Several years earlier Guido had allied with the Saracens against Charles the Fat, made war against the pope, and was charged with high treason in 882. As a result, he had very little credibility in Italy, and moreover had no legitimate claim to the Italian throne. Nonetheless, Guido's decisive victory at the Trebbia river, together with his promise to confirm privileges previously granted to the churches, led to him being crowned King of Italy on February 16, 889 by an assembly of bishops in Pavia. Berengario, however, remained in control of Friuli in northeastern Italy, where he continued to be recognized as king and planned for war to reclaim his throne from Guido, who was supported by the bishops and nobles in the northwest. Guido also managed to obtain the support of Pope Stephen V.

In 889 Arnulf of Carinthia, King of the Franks, planned an invasion of Italy. His motive is unclear, but most likely he desired to claim Italy for himself. To prevent such a catastrophic invasion, Berengario sent his dignitaries to Arnulf. The two kings met each other in Trento between November and Christmas 889. Berengario ceded the Trentine curtes of Navus and Sagus to Arnulf (the curtes were agricultural estates which included farms, houses, villas, land, etc.); in return, Arnulf canceled the planned invasion and lent his support to Berengario's claim over the Italian throne.

On February 21, 891, Guido was proclaimed Emperor by Pope Stephen V, while in May 891 Guido's son Lamberto was proclaimed co-King of Italy in Pavia. Although Guido and his son managed to usurp the Italian throne, Guido's imperial title was essentially titular and carried little effective imperial authority, as his power never extended beyond Italy, and indeed barely extended much beyond his own hereditary lands around Spoleto. Pope Stephen V — his only significant supporter — died four months later and was succeeded by Formosus.

The new pope, Formosus, was distrustful of Guido, but nonetheless he reluctantly crowned Lamberto as co-emperor in Ravenna on April 30, 892. Guido and Lamberto signed a pact confirming the Donation of Pepin and other Carolingian gifts to the papacy, in order to win the favor of the pope. However, in 893 Pope Formosus sent an embassy to Arnulf of Carinthia, requesting him to invade Italy and depose Guido and Lamberto. In return, the pope promised Arnulf the imperial crown.

In the summer of 893 Arnulf — at this time still a staunch supporter of Berengario — sent his illegitimate son with a Bavarian army into Italy to help the king recover his throne from Guido. The Bavarians and the Italian forces of Berengario marched on Trento and surrounded Guido, but the Bavarians were later bribed by Guido and returned home in autumn without accomplishing anything.

At the request of Pope Formosus and Berengario, Arnulf personally led a second expedition into Italy with his army in early 894. Bergamo was captured and cruelly sacked in January 894. The garrison was completely destroyed. Guido's representative of the city, Count Ambrogio, was hung from a tree near the city gates. The bishop of Bergamo, Adalberto, was imprisoned and delivered to the Archbishop of Mainz as a prisoner. Intimidated by this example, Milan and Pavia opened their gates to Arnulf's army, while Guido fled south.

In early March 894, Arnulf betrayed Berengario and had himself crowned King of Italy at Pavia, before returning back to Germany in late March.

After Arnulf left Italy, Guido reestablished his control over the cities of Milan and Pavia. Guido was planning a war to recapture the whole kingdom when he died suddenly in November 894. His 14-year-old son Lamberto took up claims to the throne of Italy and the imperial title. Lamberto traveled to Rome with his mother Ageltrude to receive papal confirmation, but Pope Formosus, a supporter of Arnulf of Carinthia, refused to confirm the titles. Lamberto and his mother reacted by imprisoning the pope in Castel Sant'Angelo.

In the meantime, Berengario made a failed attempt to recapture Pavia.

In September 895, a papal embassy arrived in Germany beseeching Arnulf's aid. In October Arnulf undertook another Italian expedition, quickly crossing the Alps and taking Pavia. He reached Rome by February 896 and seized the city on February 21, freeing the pope. The following day, Pope Formosus declared Lamberto deposed and crowned Arnulf Emperor in Old St. Peter's Basilica. Arnulf proceeded on to Spoleto, in chase of Lamberto and Ageltrude, but here he suffered a stroke and was forced to return to Germany. On his way home he stopped in Pavia, where he crowned his illegitimate son Ratold as co-King of Italy.

In April of 896 Pope Formosus died, leaving Lamberto free once again to seize power.

Between October and November 896 Berengario and Lamberto met in Pavia, made peace and agreed to divide the Kingdom of Italy in two. Together they made war on Arnulf's imperial representatives, drove Ratold out of Italy and partitioned the kingdom among themselves: the northeast to Berengario and the northwest to Lamberto. The city of Bergamo was to be shared by both. To secure the alliance, Lamberto pledged to marry Berengario's daughter Gisla (which never happened).

In January 897, Lamberto journeyed to Rome with Ageltrude to receive papal reconfirmation of his imperial title. The controversially-elected Pope Stephen VI confirmed the title and, under pressure from Lamberto and his mother, presided over the notorious Cadaver Synod in which the corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus — an enemy of Lamberto — was put on trial, condemned, mutilated and thrown into the Tiber River. This incident would later be unfairly characterized as a symbol of papal corruption, but in truth it occurred at the instigation of Lamberto for secular motives.

In 898 a council of seventy-four bishops at Ravenna — which was attended by both Lamberto and the newly-elected Pope John IX — declared the invalidity of Arnulf's coronation, and the validity of Lambert's imperial title.

The peace between Berengario and Lamberto came to an end in late 898. Berengario, who still regarded himself as the rightful king of Italy, advanced toward Pavia. Lamberto, who had been hunting near Marengo, outside of Mantua, caught word and surprised his rival. Berengario was defeated at Borgo San Donnino (now Fidenza) and taken prisoner.

Lamberto died just a few days later on his way back to Marengo, on October 15, 898.

Within days, Berengario took Pavia and again became the sole ruler of the Kingdom of Italy.


Chapter 5: The Magyar Invasions

It was during this time that Western Europe was invaded by the Magyars or Hungarians.

In 899 the Magyars crossed the Alps for the first time, invaded Italy and wreaked havoc in the Po Valley. Berengario gathered a large army of 15,000 men (three times the size of the Magyar forces), but he was defeated at the Battle of Brenta on September 24, 899, which in fact was not a battle as such. The Magyars had feigned a retreat and deceptively lured the Italians into an ambush — a cowardly tactic which the Magyars would often employ in order to avoid a pitched battle. In this way the nomadic Magyars were able to decimate nearly the entire Italian army, who were caught entirely by surprise while eating supper in their camp. The ambush turned into a brutal and defenseless slaughter, but Berengario managed to escape to Pavia.

Contemporaries argued that the Magyars were secretly hired as mercenaries by Arnulf of Carinthia, who still made claims to the Italian crown. They accused him of intentionally sending the Magyars to destroy Italy and kill Berengario.

The invading horde pushed westward, devastating Lombardy, Emilia and Piedmont. The Magyar invasion resulted in the burning of many Italian cities, such as Feltre, Vercelli and Modena, the destruction of monasteries like Nonantola Abbey, where many monks were killed, and even Venice was attacked, albeit without success. The surroundings of Treviso, Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo, Milan and Pavia were also attacked. Liutward, bishop of Vercelli, was slain by the Magyars in December 899.

Arnulf died on December 8, 899, having never regained control of Italy.

The Magyars remained in Italy until the spring of 900, when they concluded a peace with Berengario in exchange for a return of Magyar hostages which had been captured by Italian forces.

On their way home from Italy the Magyars sacked the Venetian towns of Equilio, Cittanova (Eraclea), Fine, Capo d'Argine and Chioggia, before embarking on an unsuccessful attack on Venice itself. The Republic of Venice was an independent republic and outside the Kingdom of Italy; the Magyars therefore argued that the attacks did not constitute a violation of the peace agreement concluded with the Kingdom of Italy.


Chapter 6: The Invasion of Louis the Blind

The crushing defeat at Brenta and the destruction of so many cities and churches caused the Italian nobility to lose faith in King Berengario and his ability to defend the Italian peninsula. As a result, they began to turn against him and looked for a new king.

In late 900 Louis the Blind, King of Provence, was called upon by various Italian nobles, including Adalberto II, Marchese of Tuscany (Tuscia).

Louis marched into Italy, defeated Berengario, and was crowned King of Italy in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia on October 12, 900. He pushed on to Rome, where, in 901, he was crowned Emperor by Pope Benedict IV.

However, Louis' inability to stem the Magyar incursions and impose any meaningful authority over the Kingdom of Italy caused the Italian nobles to quickly abandon his cause and they once again realigned themselves with Berengario. In 902 Berengario's army defeated Louis, who fled back to Provence and vowed to never return to Italy.


Chapter 7: The Return of the Magyars and Invasion of the Saracens

In 904 the Magyars invaded Italy for the second time. The city of Bergamo was subjected to a long siege. In this context King Berengario granted the bishop of Bergamo civil and military jurisdiction over the city. Berengario and the Magyars eventually formed another peace agreement in 905, and fifteen years passed without any Magyar raids in Italy.

Also in 904 the Saracens — who had been occupying the fortress of Fraxinetum in Provence since 889 — raided Priola, near Cuneo, where they murdered Eilulfo, Bishop of Asti. He was later venerated by the locals as a saint and martyr under the name of St. Bernolfo of Asti, especially in the diocese of Mondovì, where his relics were transfered. These Saracen pirates would continue to terrorize Italian towns for the next seven decades.


Chapter 8: The Second Invasion of Louis the Blind

By 905 the nobles of Italy, especially Adalberto I of Ivrea, husband of Berengario's daughter Gisla, had changed their allegiances and again turned against Berengario.

Emperor Louis, in violation of his oath, invaded Italy in a second bid for the Italian throne. Berengario was chased out of Pavia by Louis, who confidently pushed on to Verona. However, his invasion ended in abysmal failure; he was quickly defeated and captured at Verona. On July 21, 905 Berengario ordered him to be blinded for breaking his oath. It was then that he earned his nickname Louis ‘the Blind’.

Louis returned to Provence and King Berengario finally reigned almost undisputed in Italy until 922.


Chapter 9: The Return of the Saracens

Besides the ferocious Magyars, the other serious barbarian threat which constantly menaced the Kingdom of Italy was that of the Saracens, who were encamped in the fortress of Fraxinetum in Provence, just outside Italy's northwestern border.

They returned to Italy in 906, raiding the towns of Acqui, Limone Piemonte and Borgo San Dalmazzo, where they destroyed the abbey and slaughtered many monks. Also devestating was the sacking of Novalesa Abbey.

In 908 the Saracens occupied the Susa Valley, Italy's longest valley, situated near the Italian-Provencal border. By 911 they had also seized control of all the Alpine passes between the kingdoms of Italy and Provence.


Chapter 10: The Battle of Garigliano – Italy Acquires the Empire

In January 915, Pope John X tried to forge an alliance between King Berengario and the local Italian rulers in hopes that they could face the Saracen threat in Italy. Berengario sent a support force to the pope, led by Alberico I, Duke of Spoleto and Camerino.

A coalition of Italian states were led into the Battle of Garigliano by Pope John X in June 915. After the battle — a great Christian victory over the Saracens — Pope John crowned Berengario as Emperor in Rome. Finally, for the first time since the fall of Rome in 476, the Empire passed once again to the Italians: the King of Italy was now also Emperor of the Romans.

According to the Gesta Berengarii, during the coronation ceremony Berengario was praised by the Roman Senate in “the language of the Fathers” (that is to say, Latin), but was cheered by the Roman people in the “native tongue”. This is the earliest documented evidence that the developing vernacular Italian language had already become distinct from old Latin and existed alongside Latin, and is also the first literary attestation in which a crowd speaks in Italian rather than in Latin.


Chapter 11: The Invasion of Hugo and Boso

Adalberto I, Marchese of Ivrea and husband of Berengario's daughter Gisla, remained a staunch opponent of Berengario. Just as he had invited Louis the Blind to invade Italy in 905, so in 917 he called upon Hugo, Count of Provence, to invade Italy and usurp the Italian crown.

Hugo and his brother Boso invaded Italy between 917 and 920. They advanced as far as Pavia, where Berengario starved them into submission. Characteristic of Berengario's non-vengeful spirit, he permitted the brothers to freely leave Italy rather than killing or imprisoning them.


Chapter 12: The Third Magyar Invasion and the Civil War

In early 920, the Magyars invaded the Kingdom of Italy for the third time, descending over Aquileia, Verona and Pavia. Berengario was forced to buy peace by giving them their weight in gold.

Towards the end of 921 some dissatisfied nobles — led by the same Adalberto I of Ivrea, a certain Gisalberto (the future Count of Bergamo and founder of the Gisalbertini di Bergamo dynasty) and several bishops, including Lamperto, Archbishop of Milan — committed treason once again and in a grand conspiracy offered the Italian crown to Rudolph II, King of Burgundy.

Rudolph II invaded Italy, igniting a most disastrous civil war.

He entered the city of Pavia in February 922, where he was crowned King of Italy by the nobility.

Acting on behalf of the desperate Berengario, Magyar mercenaries invaded Italy to fight the forces of Rudolph II. Berengario fortified himself in Verona. Meanwhile the Magyars began to plunder the surroundings of those Italian cities that supported Rudolph: Bergamo, Piacenza and Nogara.

They also captured Gisalberto of Bergamo, one of the leaders of the small circle of noble conspirators who had betrayed Berengario and went over to the side of Rudolph II. After being stripped and whipped, Gisalberto was brought before Emperor Berengario in chains, but his treason was generously forgiven by the Emperor, who mercifully set him free.

The unpredictable Magyars, whom Berengario could not control, proceeded south where they senselessly plundered Puglia and the region between Rome and Naples.

The civil war continued into 923. Rudolph's forces defeated Berengario's forces at the Battle of Fiorenzuola d'Arda on July 17, 923. It was one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the Kingdom of Italy, and one of the worst of the entire tenth century. The huge number of deaths on both sides decimated Italy's aristocracy and military caste.

Berengario escaped death only by miracle, hiding under a pile of corpses and using them as a shield. After suffering this defeat he was forced to recognize the kingship of his opponent Rudolph, who then returned to Burgundy in December 923, while Berengario retired to Verona.


Chapter 13: The Magyar Sack of Pavia

The destruction at Fiorenzuola d'Arda opened the door for the Magyars to again wreak havoc across the Po Valley, which they did in 924, plundering Mantua, Brescia, Bergamo and Piacenza, where the Monastery of San Sisto was burned down.

They also besieged Pavia and burned it on the morning of March 12, 924. The Magyars destroyed vast resources and burned down forty-four churches. Bishop Giovanni of Pavia, along with the bishop of Vercelli, who was staying with him, were both killed by the fire and smoke. Only two hundred survivors remained. The Magyars left Pavia in ruins and continued raiding other cities in Italy.


Chapter 14: The Assassination of Emperor Berengario

Berengario was blamed for the destruction of Pavia and was accused of being responsible for the presence of the Magyars in Italy. Either for reasons of revenge or for personal gain, a group of minor Veronese nobles, led by a certain Flamberto, plotted to assassinate Berengario.

The conspiracy may have been orchestrated by Rudolph II, King of Burgundy, who aspired to usurp the Italian throne since 921, or perhaps even by Louis the Blind, who twice had invaded Italy and had been blinded by Berengario decades earlier. In any case, the operation was led by Flamberto.

Milone Sambonifacio, Count of Verona and head of Berengario's personal bodyguard, learned of the plot and tried in vain to warn him. Berengario refused to believe that Flamberto would murder him, since besides being his benefactor, the two were also close friends. Indeed, Berengario was godfather to Flamberto's son.

Berengario held a private meeting on April 6, 924, in which Flamberto feigned to reaffirm his fidelity to his sovereign. Berengario, believing in his friend, let him go in peace, and as an act of good faith sent away his bodyguards.

On the morning of April 7, 924, in the city of Verona, Berengario, King of Italy and Emperor of the Romans, was stabbed to death in the back while praying during Holy Mass at the Church of San Pietro in Castello. At the doors of the church a stone remained soaked in his blood.

Berengario was considered one of the best princes of his time: brave, forgiving, deeply religious and esteemed for his virtues even by his adversaries. His death was mourned by most of Italy.

Three days after the assassination, Flamberto and his accomplices were captured by Count Milone and hanged for treason. With the assassination of Berengario, the title and role of Emperor became defunct. No man would claim the imperial title for the next thirty-eight years.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Italy fell once again into the hands of foreigners.


Chapter 15: The Invasion of Rudolf II

Upon the death of Berengario, Rudolph II was the de facto King of Italy. However, in 925 a group of Italian nobles (namely Ermengarda, widow of Adalberto of Ivrea and half sister of Hugo of Provence; Guido, Marchese of Tuscany and brother of Ermengarda; and Lamperto, Archbishop of Milan, who had previously revolted against Berengario) defected and rebelled against Rudolph.

Rudolph made an attempt to reconquer Italy and quell the rebellion, but to no avail. His father-in-law Burchard II, Duke of Swabia, then accompanied him during a second invasion of Italy in 926.

Burchard cleverly left his army in Ivrea and visited Milan under the guise of diplomacy, but in reality he was making military preparations. Upon seeing the Basilica of San Lorenzo, he told his men that here he could build a fortress from which he could subjugate not only Milan, but also the rest of Italy, and so teach the Italians how to obey. He spoke in German, thinking the Italians would not understand. However, his words were overheard by one man who informed Archbishop Lamperto.

After leaving Milan, Burchard was ambushed near Novara and killed by the soldiers of Archbishop Lamperto in April 926. Burchard's companions, seized with terror, sought sanctuary in Novara where they hid inside the Basilica of San Gaudenzio. Lamberto's army forced open the basilica's doors and executed all of Burchard's men. Rudolph, upon hearing the news, fled back to Burgundy.


Chapter 16: The Early Reign of King Hugo

The nobles who had rebelled against Rudolph, together with the nobility who had supported Berengario, unanimously agreed to offer the Italian throne to Hugo of Provence.

In June 926 Hugo arrived by sea in Pisa, where he was received by papal legates and by most of the Italian lords. Hugo was crowned King of Italy in Pavia on July 9, 926. Shortly thereafter he met Pope John X in Mantua, where the two formed an alliance. In this way the new king was favorably welcomed by both the pope and the Italians, while Rudolph lost control of Italy.

During the early years of his reign, Hugo stabilized the central administration of the kingdom and achieved some success against the Magyar raids that had been plaguing Italy for several decades. In 927 the Magyars did raid Tuscany and Lazio, setting fires, looting and capturing prisoners. After this, however, the Magyars did not appear in Italy for the next ten years.

In 928 Hugo de facto annexed Provence (also called the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy) to the Kingdom of Italy.


Chapter 17: The Battle of Fraxinetum

The Saracens of Fraxinetum returned again in 929, laying waste to the Chisone Valley, located just south of Susa and west of Turin. A separate Fatimid fleet besieged Genoa in May 931. The fleet was large for its time, with thirty ships and one hundred galleys. The Genoese resisted the attack and repulsed the Fatimids.

Finally in 931, after forty-two years of terror, the first counter-attack against Fraxinetum finally took place. The combined forces of the Genoese navy and some Byzantine ships in service of the Kingdom of Italy launched a counter-offensive against the Saracens. They inflicted a heavy blow against Fraxinetum, but were unable to capture the fortress.


Chapter 18: The Alberician Conspiracy

In the summer of 932 Hugo illegally married the controversial Roman noblewoman Marozia, who briefly became Queen of Italy. Such a marriage could not be valid according to the Church's canon law, since marriage between in-laws was forbidden. Nonetheless, the wedding was held at Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, and was officiated by the equally-controversial Pope John XI, who was one of Marozia's sons from her legitimate first marriage.

After the wedding Hugo was supposed to receive the imperial office, which had remained vacant since the assassination of Berengario. However, Alberico II of Spoleto, Marozia's teenage son, who denounced the marriage as incestuous, incited a Roman mob and launched a coup d'état against his parents during the wedding festivities. Hugo managed to flee the castle by sliding down a rope and rejoining his army, but Queen Marozia was imprisoned by her own son. Pope John — Alberico's brother — was also imprisoned for the remainder of his life, while Alberico made himself lord of Rome.

Alberico assumed the title ‘Prince and Senator of All the Romans’ (Princeps atque omnium Romanorum Senator) and ruled as a sovereign over Rome and the Papal States for the next twenty-two years, apparently with the support of the people, while the papacy de facto lost its temporal power, but continued to freely exercise its spiritual functions, albeit under the influence of Alberico.

Hugo's power in Italy was damaged but not destroyed by these events. In 933 he concluded an agreement with Rudolph, who renounced his claims to the Italian throne and promised his daughter in marriage to Hugo's son. In exchange Hugo relinquished Provence, his home country, which was then incorporated into the new Kingdom of Arles.

Hugo thus established himself as the sole claimant to the Italian throne.


Chapter 19: The Sieges of Rome

In 933 Hugo laid siege to the city of Rome, which still remained in the hands of Alberico, but he was unable to conquer it.

In 936 Hugo besieged Rome a second time, which also was unsuccessful, but resulted in a peace treaty between Hugo and Alberico. As part of the peace, Alberico married his own stepsister Alda, who was Hugo's legitimate daughter from a previous marriage (although Alda was not truly his stepsister, as the marriage between Hugo and Marozia was canonically invalid). Evidently neither Hugo nor Alberico were concerned about Marozia, who remained imprisoned until her death in 937.

Hugo would later return a third time to besiege Rome in 941, which again ended in mysterious failure: despite entering the city, he was subsequently expelled. Alberico would continue to rule unopposed in Rome until his death in 954.


Chapter 20: The Saracen Sack of Genoa

In between the two sieges of Rome, an enormous Muslim fleet from Fatimid North Africa commanded by Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Tamimi assaulted Corsica, Sardinia and the Italian coast from 934 to 935.

On June 22, 934 the Islamic fleet encountered Christian merchant vessels off the Italian coast. The Muslims plundered the ships and took the crews captive. They proceeded on to Genoa where they attempted a sortie, which failed due to bad weather.

The Islamic fleet returned in 935 with two-hundred ships and invaded Genoa in a most devastating attack — the worst in Genoese history. Two-hundred galleys besieged the city and formed a naval blockade, which allowed the Muslim forces to land on the mainland. On August 26, 935, in the middle of the night, while the citizenry was sleeping, the Muslims sneaked into the city and entered the homes of the people. They killed the men and abducted all the women and young girls. The fourth-century Cathedral of San Siro was desecrated and burned, together with several other churches. The slaughter and destruction lasted about two hours into the early morning. Many people from Genoa were taken into captivity, including one thousand Genoese women. Only those who managed to flee to the hills and valleys were able to survive. In the end, one third of the population was massacred, while the rest were taken aboard the ships and enslaved.

On the journey back to North Africa, the Islamic fleet raided the coasts of Corsica and Sardinia. In all, the Fatimid Muslims captured some eight thousand Italian Christian prisoners during the 934-935 attacks. The captives were subsequently sold into the Arab slave trade, women and children included.

According to legend, the few survivors pursued the Muslims and caught some of them on a tiny island off the coast of Sardinia. After defeating and killing the invaders, the Genoese stacked up their bodies as a warning to the Islamic fleet, so that the island was from then on called Mortorio (‘mortuary’).


Chapter 21: The Battle of Acqui

Seemingly acting in conjunction with the Fatimid forces who sacked Genoa (for it is believed that Fraxinetum served as an outpost of Al-Andalus and the Fatimid Caliphate), in 935 the Saracen pirates invaded Italy again from their fortress in Fraxinetum, led by their savage commander Sagittus (Sa'id).

The Saracens destroyed the Abbey of Giusvalla before invading the town of Acqui, near Genoa. They were met by an Italian army, organized by the local feudal lords. The Saracens suffered a surprising and most embarrassing defeat — indeed, their first defeat since landing at Fraxinetum forty-six years earlier: almost the entire contingent was wiped out and their commander Sagittus was killed. The survivors were driven back to their fortress across the Alps without a leader.

This decisive victory at the hands of the Italian army was Christendom's first success against the Saracens of Fraxinetum.


Chapter 22: The Return of the Magyars

In 937, a decade after their last incursions, the Magyars returned to Italy, making raids in Tuscany, as well as plundering Lazio and Campania which were outside the Kingdom of Italy.

The Magyars made their way through Benevento, Naples, Nola (Cimitile), Sarno and Sora, looting and burning, laying waste to the whole region of Liburia. They also extorted the Abbey of Montecassino, forcing the monks to pay ransom for the release of hostages, before plundering the region of Marsica.

The Magyars were finally defeated at Capua and pushed out of Italy.


Chapter 23: The Reconquest of Susa

The Saracens had occupied the long Susa Valley since 908. Between 940 and 941 the Susa Valley was gloriously reconquered by Arduino Glabrione, Count of Auriate. The town of Novalesa, home of the ruined Novalesa Abbey (destroyed by the Saracens in 906), was now back in Christian hands after more than thirty years.

King Hugo rewarded Arduino Glabrione by appointing him Count of Turin in 940.


Chapter 24: The Revolt of 941

Hugo habitually endowed his friends and relatives (including illegitimate ones) with land and titles, many of whom came from Provence, which angered the Italian nobles and led to a rebellion in 941. The king managed to make peace with all the rebellious counts, except Berengario, Marchese of Ivrea and instigator of the rebellion.

In this time Berengario of Ivrea had become the most powerful feudal lord in Italy, governing most of northwestern Italy, and was de facto second in power only to the king. He was the son of the troublesome Adalberto of Ivrea and Gisla of Friuli (daughter of Emperor Berengario), thus making him Emperor Berengario's grandson.

Hugo was determined to imprison and blind him as punishment for the rebellion, but Berengario fled Italy and avoided capture. He found refuge and protection at the court of Otto I, King of Germany. Berengario was only able to escape Italy thanks to a warning by Hugo's son Lotario II.

Hugo divided Berengario's vast domains in 941 or 943 and distributed them among the major Italian magnates, effectively abolishing the March of Ivrea.


Chapter 25: The Magyar Invasion of Sabina – Campaign Against the Saracens

The Magyars invaded Italy again in the spring of 942, sacking the region of Sabina near Rome. After suffering a defeat at Rome, they marched toward Rieti. They arrived at the gates of Rieti, but suffered another heavy defeat at the hands of local Italian troops who captured and killed many Magyars.

In 942 the Saracen pirates of Fraxinetum occupied and pillaged the city of Nice (Nizza) — the Kingdom of Italy's westernmost city. As early as 940 King Hugo had been planning to launch an assault on the fortress of Fraxinetum. Finally in 942 he conducted a campaign against the Saracens, leading an Italian army to besiege Fraxinetum by land, with the support of a Byzantine fleet which blockaded the fortress by sea.

The campaign was a resounding success as the Saracens were wholly defeated. The opportunity to expel the brigands from their stronghold of Fraxinetum had finally presented itself after some fifty-three years of terror. However, King Hugo made a complete about-face and decided against destruction. Fearful of a potential invasion by a vengeful Berengario (whom he regarded as a more dangerous foe), the King instead signed a peace treaty with the Saracens and formed an alliance with them.

The Saracens thus agreed to defend the Swabian alpine passes against any attempted invasion of Italy by Berengario. This astonishing alliance alarmed the Italian nobles, who had already become discontent with King Hugo.


Chapter 26: The Massacre of Pavia

In 944 Hugo attempted to have his illegitimate son Teobaldo enrolled among the Milanese clergy, with the intention of having him elected bishop. This was strongly opposed by Arderico, Archbishop of Milan.

Hugo thus devised a plot to murder the Archbishop of Milan. He invited Arderico and the clergy to a diet in Pavia, where he planned to instigate a revolt and kill the archbishop. Accordingly, at the diet a riot was provoked between Arderico's Milanese entourage and the Pavians of the royal court, which left ninety Milanese dead in a bloody slaughter. Arderico managed to miraculously survive the ordeal.

The king later attempted to either compensate for his crime or else bribe the Milanese clergy by endowing them with Nonantola Abbey and donating a golden crucifix. It is from the ninety (novanta) victims of the massacre that Nonantola Abbey is said to derive its name. The Milanese refused to yield however and Archbishop Arderico became an influential opponent of Hugo.


Chapter 27: King Hugo's Downfall

In 945, just as King Hugo had earlier anticipated, his rival Berengario of Ivrea returned from exile with an army of Italian exiles and Swabian mercenaries. Hugo's nephew Manasse, Archbishop of Trento near Italy's northern border, betrayed him and allowed Berengario to pass into Italy.

One by one the Italian magnates — with the encouragement of the Archbishop of Milan — began to defect to Berengario's side, beginning with Milone, Count of Verona. Berengario defeated Hugo in battle and entered Milan, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm by the nobles, the bishops and the Italian people. Here a diet was held, and Hugo was deposed.

In April 945 Hugo, who was in Pavia, sent his son Lotario II to Milan to beg for the rebels' loyalty. The rebels, moved by the message, unanimously named Lotario II the sole King of Italy.


Chapter 28: King Hugo's Abdication – The Ascension of King Lotario II

At the beginning of 947, nearing death, Hugo formally abdicated and returned to Provence, leaving the throne of Italy to his son Lotario II, who — unlike his father — was beloved for his virtuous character. But effective power was in the hands of Berengario of Ivrea, who acted as regent.

Later in 947 the Magyars, led by their cheiftain Taksony, invaded Italy once again, ravaging their way as far south as Otranto, plundering Puglia for three months. The Magyars extorted tribute from the Italians and refused to leave without payment. Berengario was forced to buy peace by levying taxes against the peasants and paying the Mayars with a large amount of silver extracted from the churches. The events confirmed further that Berengario — not Lotario — was the one who effectively wielded administrative power and de facto leadership in the Italian Kingdom.

King Lotario tried to strengthen his position by marrying a young noble girl named Adelaide of Burgundy, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Rudolph II, King of Burgundy and ex-claimant to the Italian throne. Lotario had already been betrothed to her since she was just two years old, as part of the peace agreement between Hugo and Rudolph in 933. They married on December 2, 947.

Despite his pretenses, Lotario remained only a titular king and never exercised any real power or influence over the kingdom. In 948 he officially recognized Berengario of Ivrea as ‘leading sharer of the kingdom’ (regni summus consors), rendering him the legal heir. Lotario died in Turin on November 22, 950. Unproven rumors asserted that he had been poisoned by Berengario.


Chapter 29: The Coronation of Kings Berengario II and Adalberto – Organizational Reforms

After the death of Lotario II, Berengario of Ivrea and his teenage son Adalberto II succeeded him on the throne. Their November election was formalized with a coronation ceremony in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia on December 15, 950, in which Berengario and Adalberto were both crowned as co-kings of Italy. Berengario thus became King Berengario II.

In 951 the newly-crowned King Berengario II implemented a number of reforms reorganizing the Kingdom of Italy, creating several new marches and titles, such as the March of Genoa (also called the March of Obertenga or Eastern Liguria) and the March of Monferrato (also called the March of Aleramica or Western Liguria).

Arduino Glabrione, Count of Auriate and Turin, had supported Berengario II when he assumed the Italian throne. He had also previously fought successful campaigns against the Saracens. Berengario II rewarded Arduino by elevating Turin to a march (marchesato) and appointing him the first Marchese of Turin.

The Marches of Turin, Genoa and Monferrato became the three frontier marches in the fight against the Saracens who infested the Western Alps.


Chapter 30: The Imprisonment of Adelaide

Berengario II was unpopular in some noble and ecclesiastical circles due to the unfounded rumors spread by his enemies (especially the old supporters of Lotario II) that he had poisoned Lotario and profited from the taxes levied against the churches during the Magyar invasion of 947. He therefore attempted to solidify the legitimacy of his kingship by pressuring Adelaide (Lotario's teenage widow and former Queen of Italy) into marriage with his son Adalberto. But Adelaide, hearing the rumors that her husband had been murdered, fiercely refused the proposal and fled.

Fearing that Adelaide would become the leader of a rival faction and a rallying point for his enemies, Berengario determined to restrain her freedom. In April 951 she was captured and imprisoned in Lierna Castle on Lake Como, before being moved to a fortress on Lake Garda. She only managed to escape thanks to the aid of Adelardo, Bishop of Reggio-Emilia, and took refuge at Canossa Castle in August 951 under the protection of Adalberto Atto, founder of the Canossa dynasty.


Chapter 31: The Invasion of Liudolf

In the summer of 951 Liudolf, Duke of Swabia and the only son of Otto I, King of Germany, invaded the Kingdom of Italy. The reason for his invasion is uncertain, although the imprisonment of Adelaide, who was a distant relative of Liudolf's wife, may have been used as a pretext. This however would be a stretch of the imagination. Other theories suggest that Liudolf's invasion was a prideful attempt to steal glory away from his father and uncle who were also planning a military intervention in Italy.

In any case, Liudolf received little support from the local Italian nobility. His armies were defeated by the Italians and he was forced to retreat in humiliation.


Chapter 32: The Invasion of Otto I – Loss of Italian Independence

Following Liudolf's botched invasion, Adelaide's brother Conrad, together with his allies among the nobility, implored Otto I to invade Italy and depose Berengario II, whom Otto had previously protected after the Italian revolt against King Hugo in 941.

Ambitious to take Italy for himself, Otto wasted no time; he seized the opportunity and already by September 951 he was marching to Italy with an army. After crossing the Alps, the Italian nobles and bishops began to withdraw their support from Berengario II. Recognizing his weakened position, Berengario fled from his capital in Pavia and entrenched himself at San Marino.

On September 23, 951 Otto entered Pavia. Without any election or coronation, he had himself proclaimed King of Italy on October 10, usurping the throne from Berengario. Then on Christmas Day 951 he married the young Adelaide. This marriage gave Otto no rights over Italy, since Adelaide herself had no legal claim to succession, although the supporters of Otto later argued otherwise. Moreover, the sympathy that the people felt for Adelaide after her treatment by Berengario made it easier for Otto to subjugate the Italian peninsula and claim the throne without many objections.

Otto's time in Italy amounted to little more than a popular military occupation. Disturbances in northern Germany forced Otto to return home with the majority of his army in 952. However, he left a small portion of his army behind in Italy and appointed his son-in-law Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, as his regent and tasked him with subduing Berengario II.

In a weak military position with few troops, and knowing that a war with the Italians would result in a military disaster for the Germans, Conrad attempted a diplomatic solution and opened peace negotiations with Berengario II. He offered a peace treaty in which Berengario would remain King of Italy on the condition that he embraced vassalage to Otto. Berengario agreed and the pair traveled north to Magdeburg to meet with Otto and seal the agreement.

Adelaide was staunchly opposed to the agreement, but it was approved by the Diet at Augsburg in August 952. The diet was attended by the bishops of Milan, Ravenna, Pavia, Como, Brescia, Parma, Piacenza, Modena, Reggio-Emilia, Tortona, Acqui and Arezzo, who each paid homage to Otto.

Berengario II and his son Adalberto, the two kings, were forced to swear fealty to Otto as his vassals. In return, Otto renounced his claims to the Italian throne and restored the regal titles to Berengario and Adalberto. But the Kingdom of Italy lost its independence, being reduced to a mere fief of the King of Germany, and was forced to pay an enormous annual tribute.

As part of the agreement, Berengario was also forced to cede all of northeastern Italy, namely the marches of Verona, Friuli and Istria — a vast area which encompassed the regions of Veneto, Friuli, Julian Venetia and Trentino (up to Castel Firmiano in present-day South Tyrol), and amounted to approximately one-third of the Kingdom of Italy's territory. Otto organized these territories into a single march: the March of Verona. As a reward, Otto delivered this Italian region to the control of his son Henry, Duke of Bavaria.


Chapter 33: The Revolt Against Otto I – The Restoration of Italian Sovereignty

In 953 Otto's son Liudolf and his son-in-law Conrad revolted and started a civil war in Germany. Berengario II seized the opportunity to begin the reconquest of the March of Verona, which Otto had taken from him. King Berengario II's revolt constituted a de facto reassertion of Italian sovereignty, and Otto effectively lost control of Italy.

Berengario also began to purge his opponents among the church and lay nobility: He laid siege to Canossa Castle, the seat of Count Adalberto Atto, a supporter of Otto and Adelaide. He deposed several bishops who had submitted to Otto, and nominated others in their place. He removed ecclesiastical privileges from those prelates who supported Otto against him. He also exiled his former secretary Liutprand of Cremona, who had sided with Otto in 951.

By December 954 Otto and his sons finally resolved the two-year-long civil war. As part of the reconciliation agreement, Otto promised Liudolf regency over the Kingdom of Italy and an army to depose Berengario II.


Chapter 34: The Crusade Against the Saracens – The Magyar Invasion

In the midst of Berengario II's reconquest of Verona, a crusade was launched against the Saracens of Fraxinetum in 954 by Guido Guerra, Count of Ventimiglia. The outcome of the crusade is unknown, however the attacks against Italy seem to have subsided for the next few years.

Around the same time the Magyars, returning from raids in Burgundy, invaded northwestern Italy in the spring of 954, devastating the region around Turin and Susa. Some historians theorize that these attacks were in fact conducted by the Saracens, not the Magyars, and that perhaps the anti-Saracen crusade was launched by Count Guido in response to these attacks.


Chapter 35: The Second Invasion of Liudolf

In 955, after the death of Otto's son Henry, King Berengario II and his son King Adalberto recovered the March of Verona. Otto had already lost effective control over the Italian Kingdom and now also lost the northeastern territory he had taken from Italy as well.

In 956 Otto appointed Liudolf as the commander of an expedition against Berengario II, to restore German hegemony in Italy. Liudolf invaded Italy in September 956 and drove Berengario and Adalberto out of Pavia. Liudolf was on the verge of complete victory when he succumbed to illness and died of fever on September 6, 957, depriving Otto of both an heir and a commander.

Liudolf's campaign had failed again. Berengario II and Adalberto maintained their full control of the kingdom.


Chapter 36: The Feud With Pope John XII

Pope John XII was Bishop of Rome since December 16, 955. He was the son of Alberico II of Spoleto, the son of Marozia who had overthrown his family in 932 and made himself ruler of Rome. Elected at the age of eighteen, the young pope was notorious for his worldliness and scandalous conduct; his dissolute life degraded the honor of the papacy.

In 957 John XII conducted attacks against Benevento and Capua, but his militias were forced to retreat and accept an unfavorable peace. Disappointed by these setbacks, he set his sights north and organized a campaign to conquer Romagna (a land which the papacy claimed rights to since the Donation of Pepin), which meant war against King Berengario II and the Archbishop of Ravenna.

Berengario II and Adalberto must have learned of these plans, or else acted by total coincidence, as their army (which included Hugo, Marchese of Tuscany and Pietro III Candiano, Doge of Venice) ended up sacking the papal territory of Sabina during a separate campaign against the Duke of Spoleto in 559-960.

In face of this threat to his power, Pope John XII sent papal legates to Otto I in the autumn of 960, begging him to invade Italy and depose King Berengario II. In return, he promised to reward Otto with the imperial title, which no man had held since the 924 assassination of Emperor Berengario — Berengario II's grandfather. Several other Italian ecclesiastics and magnates also arrived at Otto's court with similar appeals, including the Archbishop of Milan, the bishops of Como and Novara, and Oberto I Obizzo, Marchese of Milan.

In 961, while these events were taking place, the Saracens invaded Italy again from Fraxinetum and destroyed many villages around Monferrato.


Chapter 37: The Second Invasion of Otto I

Otto and his army invaded Italy for the second time in August 961. Many of the noble families in Italy refused to defend the kingdom, except on the condition that Berengario II abdicate in favor of his son Adalberto. However, Berengario refused to abdicate and as a result the Germans were able to march through Italy almost unopposed.

Otto soon arrived in Pavia, where he celebrated Christmas and assumed the title King of Italy.

Otto reached Rome on January 31, 962. Three days later he was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII in Old St. Peter's Basilica. By reviving the imperial title, Otto became the first emperor since the death of Emperor Berengario thirty-eight years earlier. He also became the first German to be crowned emperor. From this day forward the imperial crown would permanently pass to the Germans.

On February 13, 962 the Diploma Ottonianum (an agreement between Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII) was promulgated in Rome. As part of the agreement, Otto confirmed papal possessions and swore to protect the pope and his temporal power, while the pope agreed never to form an alliance with Berengario II and Adalberto.

Betrayed by almost all the counts and bishops, Berengario II and his army retreated to their stronghold at San Leo, near Rimini. Otto's forces gave chase and laid siege to San Leo in February 962. At the same time Uberto, Marchese of Tuscany (Tuscia), one of the few nobles who remained loyal to Berengario II, was defeated and exiled by Otto I.

Berengario II's wife Willa, Queen Consort of Italy, took refuge in a castle on Isola San Giulio, a small island in Lake Orta. At the end of May 962 the Emperor began a siege of the fortified island. The island was defended by Roberto, Count of Volpiano, who was married to Perinzia, sister of Arduino of Ivrea, the future King of Italy. Perinzia was pregnant and during the siege she gave birth to a son, Guglielmo of Volpiano, the future monk and saint. The siege of Isola San Giulio lasted two months, during which Queen Willa and the loyal Count Roberto resisted valiantly until the end of July 962, when they finally capitulated only due to starvation.

The family treasure was seized, but Willa was permitted to join her husband Berengario II at San Leo, which was still under siege. The siege lasted over two years. The royal family, abandoned by its soldiers and facing starvation, had no choice but to finally surrender. Thus the city fell in 964. King Berengario II and Queen Willa were arrested and exiled to Bamberg, where Berengario died in prison in August 966. Willa, forced to become a nun, died in captivity some time later.


Chapter 38: The Papal-Italian Alliance Against Otto I

In the meantime, Pope John XII had entered negotiations with Berengario II's son King Adalberto, who had taken up refuge in Corsica in the autumn of 962.

King Adalberto sailed to the mainland and landed in Civitavecchia, where he met the pope's legates, who escorted him to Rome. John XII feared Emperor Otto's rising power in Italy, so Adalberto and John XII planned a joint campaign against him.

When Otto learned of the plot, he mobilized his troops and besieged Rome in the summer of 963. The city was divided between supporters of King Adalberto and supporters of Emperor Otto. The pope appeared in armor and drove Otto's forces across the Tiber River. However, when the pope realized he could not win the battle, he and Adalberto fled to Tivoli.

Otto I subsequently summoned an uncanonical synod at Old St. Peter's Basilica in November 963, accompanied by his supporters among the episcopate, some of whom had been appointed by Otto himself. Otto demanded that Pope John present himself and defend himself against a number of charges. The synod was in effect a show trial for the purposes of imposing Otto's imperial will upon the Roman nobility, and installing a pope more in sympathy with his political ambitions.

The pope responded by threatening to excommunicate anyone who attempted to depose him. Undeterred, Otto and the synod illegally deposed John XII, who by this time was hiding in Corsica, and elected the antipope Leo VIII, thus initiating a schism.

The Roman people refused to accept the antipope. An attempt at a revolt in support of John was mounted by the inhabitants of Rome, but was brutally put down by Otto I, resulting in a massacre with a large loss of life. Most of Otto's army departed back to Germany by the end of 963.

Pope John XII returned to Rome in February 964, after the Roman populace chased away Antipope Leo VIII. Pope John proceeded to summon a synod and pronounced his deposition as uncanonical. He died shortly after on May 14, 964.

Otto I again laid siege to the city of Rome in June 964 during a crisis of papal succession, before finally returning to Germany in January 965.


Chapter 39: The Return of King Adalberto

Meanwhile, King Adalberto was in his second exile in Corsica, waiting for an opportune time to reclaim his kingdom.

Adalberto returned in 965, accompanied by his brothers Corrado, Count of Milan, and Guido, Marchese of Ivrea. Adalberto tried to take Pavia, but was defeated by Otto's Swabian army. On June 25, 965 Adalberto's forces were defeated again in the Battle of the Po, between Parma and Piacenza. His brother Guido was killed in the battle.

Failing in his second attempt to regain his kingdom, Adalberto began a long series of negotiations with the Byzantine Empire. When these negotiations fell through, he retired with his wife to her family's estates in Burgundy, where he died in 975.


Chapter 40: The Kingdom of Italy in the Ottonian Empire

With the imperial coronation of Otto I in 962, the Kingdom of Italy lost any trace of sovereignty and was incorporated into the Ottonian Empire, which later became known as the Holy Roman Empire. From this point forward the Kingdom of Italy was a constituent kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Emperors inherited the titles ‘King of Italy’ and ‘King of Germany’, thereby unifying the crowns of Italy and Germany.

German nobles were installed in many of the Italian bishoprics and abbeys, and were often endowed with property, special privileges and secular authority, to keep the rebellious Italians in check and assure fidelity to the Emperor's authority.

Following the Ottonian conquest, members of the German imperial court also published a stream of politically-motivated literary narratives directed against King Berengario II, depicting him as a tyrant and usurper, and even striking his name from the royal record of Italian kings, in order to justify Otto's claim to the Italian throne in the aftermath of the conquest.

The Expulsion of the Saracens From Fraxinetum

During Emperor Otto I's reign the Saracens of Fraxinetum continued to harass the Kingdom of Italy. Between 966 and 969 they destroyed many towns and churches in the diocese of Alba. They attacked Nice in 970, but the city was heroically defended by a monk named Bobon, who rallied the citizens and repelled the Saracens. Angered by their failure, the Saracens burned down the ancient Abbey of San Ponzio, located outside the city walls. The same abbey had been completely destroyed by the same Saracens a century earlier in 890.

In 972 the Saracens captured St. Majolus, Abbot of Cluny, and held him and other monks hostage in Valais, just north of Italy. In response, in the same year, with the approval of Emperor Otto I and Pope John XIII, the soldiers and nobles of the Kingdom of Italy and County of Provence launched a joint campaign to dislodge the Saracens from Fraxinetum. The leaders of this undertaking were Arduino Glabrione, Marchese of Turin, Rotbold I, Count of Provence and William I, Count of Provence. Between 972 and 973 they defeated the Saracens in five battles at Embrun, Gap, Riez, Ampus and Cabasse. The sixth and final battle took place in 973, known as the Battle of Tourtour. The Saracen pirates were finally defeated and expelled, and their fortress was later demolished. The Western Alps were liberated at last, after almost a century of occupation.

One of the participants in the campaign was a certain Gibellino Grimaldi, a noble knight from Genoa. He played a significant role in the capture of Fraxinetum and was welcomed by the local Christians as a liberator. As a reward for his valor, Count William I granted him a tract of land along the Riviera near Saint-Tropez to hold in fief, centred around the town now known as Port Grimaud. This was the begining of the rise of the Grimaldi family who later ruled Monaco.

The Reign of Otto II and Otto III

Otto I died on May 7, 973 and was succeeded by Otto II, who took up residence in Rome, where he established his imperial court. Otto II seems to have reigned largely unopposed by the Italian nobles, with the exception of the Venetians and southern princes (who, in any case, were independent of the Kingdom of Italy). However his death in 983 was followed by a thirteen year interregnum, during which time there were uprisings in Italy against foreign rule and a weakening of imperial power.

In 996 Otto III marched to Italy to claim the titles King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor, which had been left unclaimed since the death of Otto II in 983. He sought also to establish imperial control over the city of Rome. After putting down a Roman rebellion, he installed his own cousin Bruno as pope who took the name Gregory V, becoming the first German pope. The new pope crowned Otto III as Emperor on May 21, 996. Otto III had grander ambitions than any emperor before him; he made Rome the permanent administrative capital of the Empire, unified the chancelleries of Germany and Italy, and engaged in many controversies and disputes.

Like his predecessors, Otto III pursued a policy of securing his power in Italy by eliminating the Italian episcopate. Throughout the reign of the Ottonians many of the highest ecclesiastical offices and secular positions in Italy were given to Germans. The sees of Milan, Ravenna, Vercelli and several others fell to German prelates, while the Holy See itself was now occupied by a grandson of Otto I. The German Gregory V was in turn succeeded by the non-Italian Pope Sylvester II, known as Gerbert of Aurillac, who was the personal tutor of both Otto II and Otto III.

In 1001, the people of Tivoli revolted against imperial authority. Otto III besieged the city and quickly put down the revolt. The people of Rome, hearing of these events, likewise revolted against imperial rule in 1001, forcing Otto III and Sylvester II to flee. Gregorio I, Count of Tusculum, was proclaimed the new leader of a Roman Republic. Otto III led two unsuccessful expeditions to regain control of the city. He died in 1002 during a third expedition. As his body was being carried back to Germany by his soldiers, his route was lined with Italians who hurled insults at the emperor's remains, manifesting the disdain which Italians had toward the emperor.


Chapter 41: King Arduino – The Restoration of Italian Independence

In 1002, after the death of Emperor Otto III, the Italian nobles did not want a German prince, and so they elected Arduino of Ivrea as King of Italy in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia. Arduino thereby became the first Italian king since the deposition of Berengario II and Adalberto in 961. After forty-one years of subjection to the Holy Roman Emperor, the Kingdom of Italy reasserted its independence.

Arduino was born in 955 in Pombia, during the period in which the Kingdom of Italy was struggling to maintain its independence from the ambitions Otto I and the nascent Holy Roman Empire. His mother was a daughter of Arduino Glabrione, the count who had defeated the Saracens at Susa in 941. His father Dadone, Count of Pombia, was alleged to have been a nephew of King Berengario II, which would mean that Arduino was grand-nephew of Berengario II.

Arduino was only a boy when the Kingdom of Italy fell in 962. Indeed, his pregnant sister Perinzia had given birth to a child in the midst of a siege by Otto I's imperial forces. Arduino grew up in Italy during the reign of the three Otto's. He later became Marchese of Ivrea in 990, and in 991 became Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran in Rome.

At the time of his election, Arduino was a controversial figure. He had previously been involved in a bloody conflict with Pietro, Bishop of Vercelli. Arduino was a staunch supporter of the minor vassals (secundi milites) against the feudal lords and imperial bishops installed by the emperors. Thus when in 997 Emperor Otto III granted feudal privileges to the bishop of Vercelli (an appointee of the emperor), Arduino refused to recognize the donation. In 997 riots broke out in Vercelli between the the minor vassals and the supporters of the bishop. Arduino and his militia intervened to restore order, but the bishop was killed in the scuffle on February 13 or March 17. During the clashes the cathedral containing the bishop's remains was burned and Arduino was blamed.

In 999, two years later, Bishop Warmundus of Ivrea (another imperial appointee) excommunicated Arduino for his role in the incidents at Vercelli. Warmundus was a German, appointed bishop of Ivrea by Emperor Otto I around 966 in order to secure imperial control in northwestern Italy, thereby making him a natural enemy of Arduino. After the excommunication of Arduino, Emperor Otto III endowed Warmundus with privileges and estates taken from Arduino, demonstrating the political nature of the conflict. Warmundus thus assumed the role of a count-bishop with temporal power and loyalty to the emperor. A similar process was repeated with the imperial bishops in many other Italian cities. Such bishops were more often creatures of the Emperor, rather than pious men of the Church.

In April 999 Arduino was summoned to Rome to explain himself to the newly-elected Pope Sylvester II, a Frenchman and former tutor of the emperor. The Pope, standing in the presence of Emperor Otto III, confirmed the excommunication and forced Arduino to abdicate his title as Marchese of Ivrea.

Disregarding this excommunication, which was inflicted upon him more for political motives, Arduino recaptured Ivrea, Vercelli, Novara and several other cities between 1000-1001, and drove the imperial bishops from their sees, including Warmundus.

Emperor Otto III died near Rome on January 23, 1002, leaving no heirs.

It was in this context that the minor Italian nobility gathered in Pavia on February 15, 1002 and elected Arduino King of Italy. The coronation ceremony was presided over by Guido, Bishop of Pavia, who placed the Iron Crown upon the head of King Arduino in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore. Arduino also assumed the title of ‘Emperor Presumptive’ (Ceasar) and was recognized as such by all.


Chapter 42: Opposition to King Arduino

Arnolfo II, Archbishop of Milan, was not present at the coronation, as he was away on a diplomatic mission to find an heir for Otto III. When he returned and learned that a king had been selected without his participation, and that the ceremony had been presided over by the bishop of Pavia instead of Milan, as was customary, he privately protested the election of King Arduino. Openly, however, he recognized the election of Arduino, as did the bishops of Cremona, Piacenza, Pavia, Brescia and Como. The Archbishop of Ravenna, together with the bishops of Verona, Modena and Vercelli, were openly hostile toward King Arduino however.

Although pretending to embrace the king in public, Archbishop Arnolfo II secretly resented that Arduino had been elected in his absence. Moreover, Arnolfo II's personal allegiance had always been to the German emperor. Therefore he began a secret correspondence with Henry II, King of Germany.

In June 1002 Arnolfo II assembled a group of nobles and prelates at Roncaglia who conspired to call Henry II into Italy to dethrone King Arduino, the legitimate King of Italy.

Henry II responded by sending Otto I, Duke of Carinthia, to lead an invasion of Italy. Shortly before Christmas 1002 Otto and his forces descended into the valley of the Adige, where they were immediately halted by King Arduino and his army. The invaders attempted to bypass the Italian army by cutting through the Sugana Valley, forcing Arduino's troops to fall back. However, the Italians launched a vigorous counter-offensive in the spring of 1003, and Otto was decisively defeated after a long and fierce battle at the camp of Fabbrica, in the Euganean Hills near Verona.

Otto of Carinthia fled with his German troops.


Chapter 43: The Invasion of Henry II

Following Otto of Carinthia's military failures and more appeals from the imperial bishops, Henry II decided to personally lead an invasion of Italy. He left Germany with a large army in March 1004, arriving in Trento on April 9, 1004.

Henry II ordered Otto I to create a diversion in the Brenta Valley, which was well-manned by troops loyal to Arduino, but the diversion failed. During Easter Week, with Arduino's Italian army successfully blocking the passes, Henry II found himself encamped near Vicenza and prepared to advance toward Verona.

All those nobles and bishops who secretly conspired against King Arduino now openly revolted.

Tedaldo, Count of Canossa (son of Adalberto Atto, who had supported Otto I against Berengario II) joined forces with Henry II. Frederick, Archbishop of Ravenna (another German prelate appointed by Emperor Otto III) assembled his own forces and joined them with Henry's army to fight against Arduino.

Arduino's army disintegrated in the face of Henry II's entry into Verona on April 18, 1004. Forsaken by most of his followers, Arduino was forced to withdraw to the Orco Valley near Ivrea.


Chapter 44: Coronation of Henry II – The Destruction of Pavia

Henry II entered Pavia, where on May 15, 1004 he was personally crowned King of Italy by Arnolfo II, Archbishop of Milan, despite the violent protests of the crowd. The ceremony ended in a bloodbath.

The people of Pavia, who were strongly opposed to German rule, revolted against Henry II and the insolent German soldiers. The Bishop of Cologne, who had accompanied Henry, attempted to restore order before fleeing for his own safety. Henry escaped only by leaping from a window, injuring his foot and earning the nickname Henry ‘the Lame’. He hid himself in the convent of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro for the duration of the conflict. The fighting between Italian civilians and German soldiers lasted into the night, with many casualties on both sides. It took a full ten days to quell the riots.

In response, Henry II ordered the massacre of the inhabitants and the burning of their homes. The city of Pavia was then burned to the ground. Flames and smoke covered the sky, while the groans of the dying filled the air. All of Italy was horrified by these events and submitted to Henry II out of fear.

Henry left Pavia on May 25 and returned to Germany.


Chapter 45: The Siege of Sparone

In the meantime, Henry II's army gave chase to Arduino, who had barricaded himself in his stronghold at the Castle of Sparone — known as the Rocca di Arduino — located between Ivrea and Aosta. The Germans relentlessly besieged the castle, but Arduino successfully withstood the bombardment for more than a year, even surviving the entire winter. Finally in 1005 the Germans gave up hope, abandoned their long siege and returned to Germany.

Arduino's resistance was widely regarded as one of the most heroic events of his reign.


Chapter 46: The Return of Arduino – Civil War

After the siege was lifted, Arduino scrapped together an army and rapidly regained control of all his previous possessions. He returned to Pavia sometime in 1005, where he was welcomed by the people with open arms. He set about rebuilding the city and reigned there undisturbed for the next decade. He regained his friends and allies, while severely punishing those who had betrayed him.

Arduino continued to be recognized as King of Italy, but the country was divided between the supporters of King Arduino (called Arduinici) and the supporters of Henry II (called Enriciani). The entire western part of the kingdom, including the Marchese of Milan, supported Arduino. But Ravenna, Piacenza, Cremona and several other cities, together with the majority of its bishops, continued to support the usurper Henry II. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Henry used the Church as a vehicle for expanding imperial power. The bishops of Como, Cremona and Asti had all been deposed by Henry and supplanted with imperial appointees, leaving Arduino with many enemies among the major bishoprics.

Inevitably the next ten years were characterized by widespread conflict and civil war throughout the Italic Kingdom: bishop against bishop, city against city, minor vassals against greater vassals.

In 1005 the loyal city of Lucca went to war against Pisa, which supported Henry. This struggle of arms is sometimes cited as the first war waged between two Italian cities in the Middle Ages.

Henry's supporters in Verona incited a rebellion against Ardunio's powerful ally Oberto II, who held several titles, including Palatine Count, Marchese of Milan, Tortona and Genoa (Eastern Liguria). The Veronese, faithful to Oberto and Arduino, immediately laid siege to the castle where Henry's rebels had barricaded themselves. A Milanese army intervened and put down the rebellion.

Arnolfo II, Archbishop of Milan went to war against Alrico, Bishop of Asti in 1008, despite both being supporters of Henry II. After excommunicating Alrico, the Archbishop and his forces proceeded to besiege the city of Asti, depose Alrico, strip him of his pastoral staff and ring, and then forced him to walk barefoot to Milan.

The civil war between the supporters of Arduino and Henry continued for the next several years.


Chapter 47: The Saracen Invasions of Pisa

In 1004 the city of Pisa was invaded by Saracen pirates, forcing open the gates and sacking a quarter of the city. All the elderly men and children of the city were slaughtered; only the women were spared, but even many of them were kidnapped and sold into slavery. In response, the Pisans destroyed the Saracen fleet in the Gulf of Gioia Tauro on the coast of Calabria in August 1005. Pope John XVIII, concerned by the advance of the Saracens, called upon the Pisan fleet to help liberate Reggio Calabria from the Saracens.

The Saracens invaded Pisa a second time in 1011 or 1012 and destroyed the city before finally being repulsed.


Chapter 48: The Second Invasion of Henry II

In May 1012 Pope Benedict VIII was elected Bishop of Rome. Around the same time an antipope was elected by the name of Gregory VI, who compelled Benedict VIII to flee Rome. The pope made his way to Germany, where he appealed to Henry II for protection. Henry II agreed to restore Benedict VIII to his papal throne in return for his coronation as Emperor.

Henry II marched into Italy for the second time with a small army at the end of 1013. On his way to Rome he stopped in Pavia, where he celebrated Christmas in the same city he had burned to the ground nearly ten years earlier.

King Arduino fled to his stronghold in Ivrea. He then sent ambassadors to Henry II with a treaty of peace. Arduino offered to submit to Henry, and even offered to resign the crown and cede many territories, if only Henry would permit him and his son to retain a small county in Italy. Henry adamantly refused to accept any proposals, however, and sent away the messengers in disdain.

In January 1014 Henry passed on to Ravenna, where he deposed Adalberto, Archbishop of Ravenna, and replaced him with a German prelate: his own illegitimate half-brother Arnold of Saxony.

Henry II arrived in Rome on February 14, 1014, restoring Benedict VIII as Pope. On the same day, the Pope crowned Henry II as Emperor in Old St. Peter's Basilica. Having already stolen King Arduino's title to Italy, Henry II was now invested with the additional authority of an emperor.

In Rome there was almost a repeat of what had happened in Pavia in 1004: the arrogance of the German soldiers and the hatred for Henry exasperated the Romans so much that on February 22, eight days after the coronation, the people of Rome rebelled and began clashing with German soldiers. The Ponte Sant'Angelo became the scene of a ferocious slaughter. The insurrextion, which lasted two days, was put down with great difficulty and heavy loss of life.

Emperor Henry II retreated to Tuscany, where he spent the next two months securing his power. He appointed Ranieri as Marchese of Tuscany. Ranieri was regarded by Henry II as a staunch supporter of the imperial cause. Shortly afterwards, Emperor Henry II moved north where he celebrated Easter in Pavia, before finally returning to Germany in May 1014.

Rather than have an open war with Arduino, Emperor Henry attempted to strengthen his administrative power over Italy as the previous emperors had done: by nominating imperialists to administrative positions, installing German prelates in Italian bishoprics, and investing his royal representatives with supreme judicial jurisdiction. Although the Emperor's authority was not openly disputed, and most of the bishops were on his side, disaffection still permeated all classes and many Italian families refused submission.


Chapter 49: The Last Days of King Arduino

In June 1014, after Emperor Henry's departure from Italy, King Arduino launched a major offensive to reclaim his kingdom, waging war against those towns that supported Henry. He was supported by Marchese Oberto II and his four sons (Adalberto II, Obizzo I, Ugo I and Alberto Azzo I, progenitor of the House of Este), and several other counts, as well as Geronimo, Bishop of Vicenza.

He recaptured Vercelli with the help of Oberto II and other loyal supporters, driving out the bishop Leo, who barely escaped capture. Leo was yet another German prelate who had been appointed by Emperor Otto III several years earlier. During his long reign as Bishop of Vercelli, Leo was a bitter opponent of Arduino and carried out an intense political campaign in favor of restoring German imperial rule in Italy. Now Leo was forced to flee Vercelli.

After recapturing Vercelli and the whole diocese with lightning speed, Arduino invaded Como and besieged Novara. The Bishop of Novara, Pietro III (another servant of the Emperor) fled to Germany. Meanwhile Alberto Azzo I, Arduino's ally, occupied Pavia.

In a matter of weeks, the Italians had regained many territories controlled by Emperor Henry's advocates. King Arduino was at the height of success and his campaign took on the character of a national uprising. For the moment it seemed that imperial control over Italy was about to falter. Then, suddenly, Archbishop Arnolfo II of Milan, accompanied by Bishop Leo and a strong imperial army, attacked and captured Arduino's city of Asti, and then drove Arduino's men out of Como and Vercelli. The young Bonifacio III of Canossa, father of the future Queen Matilde of Canossa, also joined the imperial cause against Arduino.

Oberto II and all four of his sons — Arduino's allies — were captured. Two of them (Ugo I and Alberto Azzo I) managed to escape, but the other two (Adalberto II and Obizzo I) were deported to Germany and imprisoned at Fulda and Giebichenstein. An imperial decision issued in the autumn of 1014 found them guilty of treason. Oberto II and Ugo I, who had escaped, died in the same year.

King Arduino, demoralized and struck with sudden illness, unexpectedly abdicated his throne on October 30, 1014. He became a monk and retired to the Benedectine Abbey of Fruttuaria, which he himself had founded together with his nephew St. Guglielmo of Volpiano. Arduino laid his regalia on the altar, shaved his beard and spent the remainder of his life in penance. He died there the following year on December 14, 1015 and was buried in the main altar of the church.

The fate of the Italic Kings were all unhappy ones: King Berengario I was betrayed and assassinated in church; King Berengario II was abandoned and died in prison; King Arduino abdicated and died as a monk; each the victim of internal discord and outside forces who coveted the crown of Italy.


Epilogue: The Aftermath – From the Death of King Arduino to the Investiture Controversy

The reign of King Arduino, which lasted almost thirteen years, is noted in history as being the last attempt made by the Italians to elect a native king. Indeed, as history had it, Arduino was the last Italian king. Italian independence lasted only nine decades, from 888 to 962 and again from 1002 to 1014. There would not be another independent king of Italy until the Unification of Italy by King Vittorio Emanuele II on March 17, 1861, more than eight centuries later.

After Arduino's abdication and death, Emperor Henry II ordered the March of Ivrea — which had given the Holy Roman Emperors so much trouble — to be dissolved.

Even after Arduino's death, his loyal supporters continued to resist imperial rule. Among those who continued the fight against imperial ambitions were: Arduino's sons Arduino II, Guiberto and Ottone; Arduino's half brother Guiberto, Count of Pombia; Olderico Manfredi II, Marchese of Turin and his brother Alrico, Bishop of Asti; Oberto II, Marchese of Milan and his son Alberto Azzo I; Guglielmo III, Marchese of Monferrato; and Uberto il Rufo, Count of Vercelli.

In 1016 Leo, Bishop of Vercelli, was surrounded by Arduino's old supporters and appealed to Emperor Henry II for military intervention. Leo, together with some other bishops and magnates, including Bonifacio III of Canossa, repelled the attack on Vercelli. Then, on the orders of Emperor Henry, the imperial coalition undertook an offensive, laying siege to Castelletto d'Orba. The castle was burnt, but Arduino's supporters were permitted to withdraw.

Pilgrimus, the future Archbishop of Cologne, was appointed Imperial Chancellor of the Kingdom of Italy by Emperor Henry in 1016, and was sent into Italy to pacify the revolts. He achieved considerable success, as between 1016 and 1019 most of Arduino's supporters began to negotiate a peace with the Emperor. Oberto II's sons, who were still being held hostage in Germany, were returned to Italy and reconciled with Henry II.

The Papal-Pisan-Genoese Expedition to Sardinia

While this was taking place, the Saracens made further incursions into Italy. In 1015 a Saracen fleet from Al-Andalus, led by Musettus or Mogehid (Mujahid al-Amiri), landed an army of ten-thousand men in Sardinia, devastated the island, murdered the governor of Cagliari, crossed over to Tuscany, and took the town of Luni. Pope Benedict VIII personally organized an Italian coalition army and navy of Papal, Pisan and Genoese troops and ships. In 1016 they repulsed the Saracens in the Battle of Luni, pushing them back to Sardinia. The Italian fleet proceeded on an expedition to liberate Sardinia, which was successfully completed in June 1016.

In 1015, while most of the Pisan fleet was engaging the Saracens in the sea, a Saracen fleet led by the same Musettus attempted to invade Pisa. According to legend, all of the unsuspecting citizens were fast asleep, except for a young girl named Cinzica de' Sismondi, daughter of a noble family, who lived near the coastline. She saw the Saracen fleet approaching and alerted the consuls, who rang the bells of the city and called the people to arms. According to one account the enemy fleet quickly retreated upon hearing the bells. Another account says that the citizens of Pisa bitterly engaged the Saracens and defeated them in battle. All of the Saracens were killed, except Musettus who managed to escape. The city of Pisa was saved thanks to the actions of the young heroine. Around this time Pisa began to gradually develop into a free commune and by the end of the century constituted itself into an independent republic.

The Death of Henry II

Emperor Henry II conducted one last military expedition into Italy between 1021-1022, but this time entirely unrelated to rebellions in the kingdom; this time his principle objective was to support Pope Benedict VIII by countering the expansion of the Byzantine Empire in Italy and asserting authority over the semi-independent principalities in southern Italy, which were located outside the Kingdom of Italy. His formidable Germany army was joined by his Italian supporters at Verona in early December 1021. They marched south in January 1022. After the end of the conflict, Henry II and Benedict VIII held a synod in Pavia in August 1022, before finally returning to Germany.

Emperor Henry II died on July 13, 1024 without an heir. His death was accompanied by celebratory riots in Italy. The people of Pavia declared that “the Empire died with him”. They set fire to the Imperial Palace in Pavia, chased away the imperial officials, and demolished the structure down to its very foundation stone, lest any future emperor attempt to build another palace in that city. The Imperial Palace at Bologna was also destroyed by its citizens.

The Invasion of Conrad II

The secular nobility or lay nobles, who generally supported Italian independence or at least autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire, came into immediate conflict with the ecclesiastical nobility, who were mostly Germans and partisans of the Empire. In 1024, after Henry II's death, the secular Italian nobility — led by Alberto Azzo I and Olderico Manfredi II, Marchese of Turin — sent an embassy to Robert II, King of the Franks, inviting him to take the Italian throne. When he declined the offer, they approached William V, Duke of Aquitaine, and offered him the Italian crown. He also declined.

Acting independently from the secular nobility, in June 1025 Ariberto da Intimiano, Archbishop of Milan, accompanied by other bishops, traveled to Constance to meet Conrad II, the new King of Germany and successor of Henry II. In exchange for privledges, Ariberto agreed to crown Conrad II as King of Italy. This gesture was opposed by the secular Italian nobles, who wanted to separate the Kingdom of Italy from the Holy Roman Empire.

Ambassadors from Pavia traveled north to meet with the German king. The Italians insisted that Italy and Germany were two separate realms, and that Italy's throne did not belong to the German king by right, therefore the Italian throne was to be considered vacant. Conrad II argued that the crowns of Italy and Germany were in a political union, and that by virtue of being elected King of Germany, he also inherited the title King of Italy by legal right. In addition, he demanded the Imperial Palace to be rebuilt in Pavia. The Italians refused and returned to Italy firmly opposed to Conrad II's ambitions.

In February 1026, Conrad assembled an army of thousands of armored German knights for an expedition into Italy, including troops commanded by Pilgrimus, Archbishop of Cologne and Imperial Chancellor.

In Spring 1026 Conrad's army marched south and tried to enter Pavia, but the city refused to open its gates. Conrad and his army besieged the city. The city was defended by a number of Italian nobles, including Alberto Azzo I and Olderico Manfredi, Marchese of Turin. The brave people of Pavia resisted the siege with great tenacity, victoriously repulsing every assault. Enraged by Pavia's resistance, Conrad II set about savagely devastating the surrounding countryside, burning churches and castles.

Conrad passed on to Milan, while a contingent of German soldiers stayed behind and kept Pavia under siege for the next two years, blocking trade and attempting to starve the inhabitants into submission.

Conrad II arrived in Milan, where he was crowned King of Italy by Archbishop Ariberto on March 26, 1026. Afterward, Conrad traveled to Vercelli, where he celebrated Easter with the elderly bishop Leo of Vercelli, who died a few days later.

In early May 1026 Conrad II attacked the restored fortress of Castelletto d'Orba — the same which had been burned down ten years earlier by Bishop Leo's imperial troops. The fortress was defended by Guglielmo III, Marchese of Monferrato, but he fared poorly. Conrad's army defeated him and destroyed his fortress.

In June 1026, Conrad marched with his army to Ravenna. The citizens of Ravenna rose against Conrad II in open revolt. Conrad's army took heavy losses but crushed the rebellion and burned down most of the city, inflicting slaughter upon the Italian populace. The surviving inhabitants appeared before the German king barefoot and wearing hair-shirts, demonstrating their submission.

Conrad II and his army marched back north and laid siege to Ivrea, the old stronghold of King Arduino, in December 1026. He celebrated Christmas there after subjugating the city.

In the winter of 1026-1027, as Conrad was preparing to go with his army to Rome to be crowned Emperor, Ranieri, Marchese of Tuscany, gathered his troops in Lucca where he prepared to resist Conrad. When Conrad arrived at Lucca in February 1027, he found the gates locked and Marchese Ranieri refused to welcome him. A siege took place between February and March 1027. Ranieri lost and was deposed by Conrad, who replaced him with Bonifacio III of Canossa, father of Matilde of Canossa.

Having finally arrived at Rome, on March 26, 1027 Conrad II received the imperial crown from Pope John XIX in Old Saint Peter's Basilica. Following the ceremony, conflict broke out between the German soldiers and Roman citizens. Revolts against the German emperor and his imperial troops had taken place at almost every imperial coronation since Otto I. By this point the coronation of the foreign emperor in Rome seemed to always end in rioting and massacre.

After attending a Roman synod in April and receiving homage from all the principalities in southern Italy, Emperor Conrad II returned to Germany in late May 1027.

The Prince-Bishopric of Trento

On June 1, 1027, Conrad II issued a diploma separating Trento from the March of Verona and investing the Bishop of Trento with temporal power, thereby formally establishing the Prince-Bishopric of Trento. The bishops were given temporal authority over the counties of Trento, Bolzano and Venosta. Imitating the policies of his predecessors, Emperor Conrad conferred temporal power on the Tridentine bishops for the sole purpose of securing imperial control in northeastern Italy. By bestowing power over the region to imperial bishops, he ensured that the main passage between Germany and Italy would remain in the hands of his loyal princes, and therefore entry into Italy would never again be blocked to the emperor.

The War of the Vavasours – The Second Invasion of Conrad II

Due to the changing power structure and ethnic conflicts between Germans and Italians, over the next decade tensions rose high in Italy between the vavasours (valvassori) and minor landowners on the one side, and the barons (capitanei) and imperial bishops on the other. Soon revolts began to engulf all of northern Italy, in what was deemed a true and proper revolution. Most notably the two sides came into open conflict in Milan, where the vavasours and minor nobility staged an uprising against Archbishop Ariberto in 1035.

As war broke out, cities began to take sides against each other. This led to the Battle of Campomalo in 1036, fought by the Motta (a league of armed men founded by the Milanese vavasours) in alliance with Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Seprio and Martesana, against Milan and Asti. The results of the battle are unclear, but Alrico, Bishop of Asti, was killed in the clash.

Emperor Conrad II, seeing that imperial control might be in jeopardy, intervened without delay, marching into Italy with his army in 1036. He arrived at Milan in January 1037, where he was greeted with great pomp by Archbishop Ariberto. To the surprise of Ariberto, who a decade earlier had personally crowned Conrad II King of Italy and had been a loyal advocate of imperial power, the Emperor took sides with the vavasours against the Archbishop. Conrad II arrested Ariberto in March 1037 and incarcerated him in a fortress near Piacenza. He was left in the custody of Poppo, Patriarch of Aquileia (another German prelate, nominated to office years earlier by Emperor Henry II).

After about a month in captivity, Ariberto managed to escape with the help of a certain monk named Albizone. He returned to Milan in April, where he was received in triumph. The arrest of the Archbishop was viewed as an insult by Milan, and the whole city — including the vavasours — joined in solidarity with Archbishop Ariberto, who now formed an anti-imperial party against Emperor Conrad. The people of Milan were armed and the city walls were strengthened in preparation for war.

In early May 1037 the imperial army encountered the town of Landriano, one of the Archbishop's strongholds near Pavia, which Conrad's troops quickly overran and razed to the ground.

On May 19, 1037, the Feast of the Ascension, Emperor Conrad II and his imperial army, which was composed of both German and Italian troops, laid siege to Milan. The Milanese, brave and confident in their ability, engaged the imperial attackers in open battle, going up against Conrad II's entire army. Many members of the imperial guard were killed. The Milanese archers also suffered heavy losses. The battle ended in a stalemate and both armies withdrew, with the Milanese retreating back behind the city walls. The siege continued for the next ten days.

On May 28, 1037, the Eve of Pentecost, while Milan was being besieged, Emperor Conrad II issued the Constitution of Fiefs (Constitutio de feudis), also known as the Edict on the Benefices of the Italian Kingdom (Edictum de beneficiis regni Italici), a law regulating feudal contracts which he hoped would secure support from the Italian vavasours.

The promulgation of this decree neither ended nor lessened the intensity of the war.

On Pentecost Day 1037 the imperial troops, who were unable to capture the well-defended Milan, lifted the siege and instead besieged the Milanese outpost of Corbetta. During the assault, events took place which were deemed miraculous: the skies of Italy were suddenly overcast with black clouds, and a blast of wind smote the German tents so furiously that it beat them all down and rolled them onto the ground. So heavy was the storm of rain and hail, and so tremendous the roar of the thunder, and so terrible were the sudden bursts of lightning which struck the camp, that a very great number of Germans and most of the horses perished. It is said that the figure of St. Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, appeared in the storm and chastised the imperial army. Amazed and terrified, the Emperor lifted the fatal siege and fled to Cremona.

Ultimately this supernatural phenomena did not deter Emperor Conrad II, however.

In Cremona the Emperor met with Pope Benedict IX and attempted to induce him to depose and excommunicate Archbishop Ariberto, but the pope refused to comply.

The war subsided for about a year, but Conrad II did not leave Italy. He settled around Lake Garda in June 1037, then spent the following month in the Veronese countryside, and later celebrated Christmas in Parma. By February 1038 the Emperor and his imperial army had arrived in Tuscany to tend to unrelated matters. He celebrated Easter 1038 in Spello, near Spoleto.

On Easter 1038, under imperial pressure, Pope Benedict IX finally excommunicated Archbishop Ariberto, and attempted to substitute him with Ambrogio, Conrad II's imperial chaplain. This unleashed the wrath of the outraged citizens of Milan, who attacked and destroyed the properties of the imperial chaplain in response.

Emperor Conrad and his imperial army moved south to tend to unrelated matters. He then set his sights on addressing the issue of Milan, but by the time he returned north his army had been struck with plague. The disease spread quickly through the imperial ranks, decimating the troops and infecting the royal family. Conrad II returned to Germany in August 1038 and died on June 4, 1039 without resolving the turmoil in Milan. His supporters in Italy were in the midst of besieging Milan when they heard the news of the Emperor's death and decided to lift the siege and disband.

The Origin of the Carroccio

It was during this war against Emperor Conrad II in 1038 or 1039 that Archbishop Ariberto invented the carroccio, a large four-wheeled ox-drawn war carriage carrying an altar and bearing the communal insignia, around which the communal militia gathered and fought. It later spread to the other cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, and throughout northern Italy in general, where it became a symbol of municipal autonomy, especially in the context of struggling against the Holy Roman Empire.

The Reign of Emperor Henry III

Immediately upon Emperor Conrad II's death, his eldest son Henry III assumed the titles King of Italy, King of Germany and King of Burgundy. He had supported Archbishop Ariberto against his father, so when he inherited the throne he made peace with Milan. Archbishop Ariberto also obtained the lifting of his excommunication and was formally restored to his see. However, civil war broke out again in 1042 when the vavasours and the plebeians, led by Lanzone della Corte, rose up against Ariberto and expelled him from Milan. The war ended with an agreement in 1044.

Henry III was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas 1046 by the newly-elected German Pope Clement II. He died in 1056 without any significant clashes with the Italians. However, the ambitions of his son and successor, Emperor Henry IV, led to the Investiture Controversy between the emperors and the popes, which ignited a new wave of Italian resistance against the Holy Roman Empire.

The Guelphs and the Ghibellines

The struggle for Italian independence continued into the next century, but the Italians never again attempted to elect a king. The Italian communes and petty lords had already become so divided that instead of electing a native king and uniting Italy under a common sovereign, opposition to foreign rule took the form of communal autonomy, causing the Kingdom of Italy to become divided into a series of free communes and city-states.

Gradually the Italian communes organized themselves into opposing factions known as Guelphs (Guelfi) and Ghibellines (Ghibellini). The Guelphs represented the anti-imperial party who generally supported the papacy and communal autonomy, and found support among the mercantile class, artisan guilds and lower nobility, while the Ghibellines represented the imperial party who supported the Holy Roman Emperor and often drew adherents from the upper nobility and feudal barons. Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries Italy suffered from incessant warfare between these two factions.

With the formation of the Lombard League in 1167, and the subsequent victory over Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1176, followed by the defeat of Emperor Frederick II in 1248, Italy would finally become free from the grip of the Holy Roman Emperor. After Frederick II's death in 1250 the Kingdom of Italy de facto ceased to exist as a political unit, although the Holy Roman Emperors continued to claim the title and occasionally attempted to reassert their power. By the dawn of the Renaissance, however, Italy was essentially free from imperial control.