Duchy of Spoleto

Coordinates: 42°44′N 12°44′E / 42.733°N 12.733°E / 42.733; 12.733
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

42°44′N 12°44′E / 42.733°N 12.733°E / 42.733; 12.733

Duchy of Spoleto
Ducatus Spolitanorum (
margraviate
842
• Berengar diminishes the size of the Duchy
949
• Investiture Controversy
1075–1122
• Emperor Otto IV grants the duchy to the Papal States
1201
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Kingdom of the Lombards
Papal States Papal States
Kingdom of Sicily Sicily
Today part ofItaly

The Duchy of Spoleto (

Latin: Ducatus Spolitanorum) was a Lombard territory founded about 570 in central Italy by the Lombard dux Faroald. Its capital was the city of Spoleto
.

Lombards

The Lombard Kingdom of Italy comprising the Duchy.

The Lombards invaded northern Italy in 568 and began their conquest of the peninsula eventually establishing the Kingdom of the Lombards. Following the conquest of the north, the Lombards moved into central and southern Italy capturing the important hub of Spoleto in 570.[1] In 572, the Lombards captured the northern city of Pavia after a siege of three years and established the first capital city of their new Kingdom. As time progressed, the captured territories were divided by the Lombard king among numerous dependent dukes.

A

Jupiter, Juno and Minerva had already been occupied by the bishop's cathedral (the see was founded in the 4th century) which incorporated the pagan structure (now the church of San Ansano). The Lombard dukes restored the fortifications of the high rocca, whose walls had been dismantled by Totila during the Gothic War
.

The dukes of Spoleto waged intermittent war with the Byzantine

Theudelapius, son of Faroald, whom the Catholic Encyclopedia credits with the first building of Spoleto's cathedral. Then came Atto (653), Thrasimund I (663), and Faroald II (703), who ruled conjointly with his brother Wachilap. Faroald II captured Classis, the port of Ravenna, according to Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards: "In that time too Faroald, the first dux of the Spoletans, invading Classis with an army of Lombards, left the wealthy city despoiled and bare of all its riches." He was then obliged by Liutprand, King of the Lombards to restore it, a measure of the loose central control of Lombard rule that Liutprand was occupied in tightening, at least as Paul interpreted events for his Frankish patrons. At Spoleto Faroald was deposed by his son Transemund II (724), who also rebelled against Liutprand and formed an alliance with Pope Gregory III, who sheltered him in Rome in 738. Ilderic
, who had replaced him as duke, was slain by Transemund in 740, but in 742 Transemund was forcibly retired to a monastery by Liutprand, who conferred the duchy that he had rewon by force of arms upon Agiprand (742). By the time of Liutprand's death (744), Spoleto was more securely in central control from Pavia, and Theodicus succeeded peaceably. Three 8th-century dukes were Kings of the Lombards, a sign that in that period Spoleto was linked more closely to the kingdom than was Benevento.

Imperial fief

In 776, two years after the fall of Pavia, Spoleto fell likewise to Charlemagne and his Carolingian Empire,[2] and he assumed the title King of the Lombards. Though he granted the territory to the Church, he retained the right to name its dukes, an important concession that can be compared to the as-yet uncontested Imperial right to invest territorial bishops, and perhaps at times a matter of contention between emperor and papacy, for Pope Adrian I had recently named a duke of Spoleto.

In 842, the former duchy was resurrected by the Franks to be held as a Frankish border territory by a dependent

Lambert II
as duke, king and emperor.

The dukes of Spoleto continued to intervene in the violent politics of Rome. Alberico I, Duke of Camerino (897), and afterwards of Spoleto, married the notorious Roman noblewoman Marozia, mistress of Pope Sergius III (904–911), and was killed by the Romans in 924. His son Alberico II overthrew the senatrix in 932 though her son, his half-brother, was Pope John XII. About 949, the Frankish King Berengar II of Italy takes Spoleto from the margrave, diminishes the size of the duchy, and sets aside territory that will become the March of Fermo.

At that time, Emperor

Otto III detached Spoleto and granted it to Hugh, Margrave of Tuscany. Later in December 998, Otto appointed Adhemar of Capua as the duke of Spoleto. Adhemar ruled four years until the duchy is united a second time with Tuscany
in 1003.

During the

margraves of Ancona. In 1183, Frederick appointed Conrad of Urslingen as the duke. Conrad ruled until 1190 when Frederick died and the Guelphs seized the principality and positioned Pandulf as the duke. Five years later after Henry VI succeeded Frederick I as emperor, Conrad regained the position as duke of Spoleto. After Henry VI died in 1197 and Otto of Brunswick became the king of Italy in 1198, however, Conrad left the position and ceded Spoleto to Pope Innocent III
.

Papal fief

In 1201, in support of Pope Innocent's desire to strengthen the dominion of the

House of Hohenstaufen
in 1254.

Ultimately, the territories of Spoleto were annexed to the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. The title of Duchy of Spoleto was later used by members of the House of Savoy.

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Penny Cyclopaedia (1842), p. 368.
  2. ^ Klieger (2012), p. 123.
  3. ^ McKitterick (1995), p. 311.

References

  • Klieger, P. Christiaan (2012-11-29). The Microstates of Europe: Designer Nations in a Post-Modern World. Lexington Books.
    ISBN 9780739174272
    .
  • McKitterick, Rosamond (1995-09-14). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 2, C.700-c.900. Cambridge University Press.
    ISBN 9780521362924
    .
  • The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: Sigonio - Steam-Vessel. Knight. 1842.

External links

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