Marozia
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| Marozia | |
|---|---|
| Senatrix and Patricia of Rome | |
 | |
| Born | Maria c. 890 Rome |
| Died | 937 Rome |
| Spouse | Alberic I of Spoleto Guy, Margrave of Tuscany Hugh of Italy |
| Issue | Pope John XI Alberic II of Spoleto David Berta Theodora |
| Father | Theophylact I, Count of Tusculum |
| Mother | Theodora |
Marozia, born Maria and also known as Mariuccia or Mariozza (c. 890 – 937), was a Roman noblewoman who was the alleged mistress of
Early life
Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, and of Theodora, the real power in Rome, whom bishop Liutprand of Cremona characterized as a "shameless whore... [who] exercised power on the Roman citizenry like a man."
At the age of fifteen, Marozia became the mistress of Theophylact's cousin Pope Sergius III, whom she knew when he was bishop of Portus. The two had a son, John (the later Pope John XI). That, at least, is the story found in two contemporary sources, the Liber Pontificalis and the Antapodosis sive Res per Europam gestae (958–62), by Liutprand of Cremona (c. 920–72). But a third contemporary source, the annalist Flodoard (c. 894–966), says John XI was brother of Alberic II, the latter being the offspring of Marozia and her husband Alberic I. Hence John too may have been the son of Marozia and Alberic I. Marozia married Alberic I, duke of Spoleto, in 909, and their son Alberic II was born in 911 or 912. By the time Alberic I was killed at Orte in 924, the Roman landowners had won complete victory over the traditional bureaucracy represented by the papal curia. Rome was virtually under secular control, the historic nadir of the papacy. Guy of TuscanyIn order to counter the influence of Guy of Tuscany. Together they attacked Rome, arrested Pope John X in the Lateran, and jailed him in the Castel Sant'Angelo. Either Guy had him smothered with a pillow in 928 or he simply died, perhaps from neglect or ill treatment. Marozia seized power in Rome in a coup d'état. The following popes, Leo VI and Stephen VII, were both her puppets. In 931 she managed to impose her twenty-one-year-old son as pontiff, under the name of John XI .
Hugh of Arles, and deathGuy died in 929, and Marozia negotiated a marriage with his half-brother Hugh of Arles, the King of Italy . While in Rome Hugh quarreled with Marozia's son Alberic II, who organized an uprising during the wedding ceremonies in 932. Hugh escaped, but Marozia was captured.
Marozia died after spending some 5 years in prison. Her descendants remained active in papal politics, starting with Alberic II's son Octavian, who became Pope John XII in 955. Popes Benedict VIII, John XIX, and Benedict IX, and antipope Benedict X of the House of Tusculani, were also descended from Marozia. By Guy of Tuscany she had a daughter named Berta Theodora, who never married. Family tree
Sources
Footnotes
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