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____ Berenger I
Birth: ABT 840
Death: 7 Apr 924 Verona, Italy
Cause of Death: murdered
Notes
b 840/845
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berengar_I_of_Italy
Berengar I (Latin: Berengarius, Perngarius; Italian: Berengario; c. 845 7 April 924[1])
was the King of Italy from 887, and Holy Roman Emperor after 915, until his death. He
is usually known as Berengar of Friuli, since he ruled the March of Friuli from 874 until
at least 890, but he had lost control of the region by 896.[2]
Berengar rose to become one of the most influential laymen in the empire of Charles
the Fat, and he was elected to replace Charles in Italy after the latter's deposition in
November 887. His long reign of 36 years saw him opposed by no less than seven
other claimants to the Italian throne. His reign is usually characterised as "troubled"
because of the many competitors for the crown and because of the arrival of Magyar
raiders in Western Europe. He was the last emperor before Otto the Great was
crowned in 962, after a 38-year interregnum.
Margrave of Friuli, 874887[edit]
His family was called the Unruochings after his grandfather, Unruoch II. Berengar was
a son of Eberhard of Friuli and Gisela, daughter of Louis the Pious and his second
wife Judith. He was thus of Carolingian extraction on his mother's side. He was born
probably at Cividale. Sometime during his margraviate, he married Bertilla, daughter of
Suppo II, thus securing an alliance with the powerful Supponid family.[3] She would
later rule alongside him as a consors, a title specifically denoting her informal power
and influence, as opposed to a mere coniunx, "wife."[4]
When his older brother Unruoch III died in 874,[5] Berengar succeeded him in the
March of Friuli.[6] With this he obtained a key position in the Carolingian Empire, as
the march bordered the Croats and other Slavs who were a constant threat to the
Italian peninsula. He was a territorial magnate with lordship over several counties in
northeastern Italy. He was an important channel for the men of Friuli to get access to
the emperor and for the emperor to exercise authority in Friuli. He even had a large
degree of influence on the church of Friuli. In 884885, Berengar intervened with the
emperor on behalf of Haimo, Bishop of Belluno.[7]
When, in 875, the Emperor Louis II, who was also King of Italy, died, having come to
terms with Louis the German whereby the German monarch's eldest son, Carloman,
would succeed in Italy, Charles the Bald of West Francia invaded the peninsula and
had himself crowned king and emperor.[8] Louis the German sent first Charles the Fat,
his youngest son, and then Carloman himself, with armies containing Italian magnates
led by Berengar, to possess the Italian kingdom.[8][9] This was not successful until
the death of Charles the Bald in 877. The proximity of Berengar's march to Bavaria,
which Carloman already ruled under his father, may explain their cooperation.
In 883, the newly succeeded Guy III of Spoleto was accused of treason at an imperial
synod held at Nonantula late in May.[10] He returned to the Duchy of Spoleto and
made an alliance with the Saracens. The emperor, then Charles the Fat, sent Berengar
with an army to deprive him of Spoleto. Berengar was successful before an epidemic
of disease, which ravaged all Italy, affecting the emperor and his entourage as well as
Berengar's army, forced him to retire.[10]
In 886, Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli, took Berengar's sister from the nunnery of San
Salvatore at Brescia in order to marry her to a relative of his; whether or not by force
or by the consent of the convent and Charles the Fat, her relative, is uncertain.[11]
Berengar and Liutward had a feud that year, which involved his attack on Vercelli and
plundering of the bishop's goods.[12] Berengar's actions are explicable if his sister
was abducted by the bishop, but if the bishop's actions were justified, then Berengar
appears as the initiator of the feud. Whatever the case, bishop and margrave were
reconciled shortly before Liutward was dismissed from court in 887.[12]
By his brief war with Liutward, Berengar had lost the favour of his cousin the emperor.
Berengar came to the emperor's assembly at Waiblingen in early May 887.[13] He
made peace with the emperor and compensated for the actions of the previous year by
dispensing great gifts.[13] In June or July, Berengar was again at the emperor's side at
Kirchen, when Louis of Provence was adopted as the emperor's son.[14] It is
sometimes alleged that Berengar was pining to be declared Charles' heir and that he
may in fact have been so named in Italy, where he was acclaimed (or made himself)
king immediately after Charles' deposition by the nobles of East Francia in November
that year (887).[15] On the other hand, his presence may merely have been necessary
to confirm Charles' illegitimate son Bernard as his heir (Waiblingen), a plan which
failed when the pope refused to attend, and then to confirm Louis instead (Kirchen).
[16]
King of Italy, 887915[edit]
Berengar was the only one of the reguli (petty kings) to crop up in the aftermath of
Charles' deposition besides Arnulf of Carinthia, his deposer, who was made king
before the emperor's death.[17] Charter evidence begins Berengar's reign at Pavia
between 26 December 887 and 2 January 888, though this has been disputed.[18]
Berengar was not the undisputed leading magnate in Italy at the time, but he may
have made an agreement with his former rival, Guy of Spoleto, whereby Guy would
have West Francia and he Italy on the emperor's death.[19] Both Guy and Berengar
were related to the Carolingians in the female line. They represented different factions
in Italian politics: Berengar the pro-German and Guy the pro-French.
In Summer 888, Guy, who had failed in his bid to take the West Frankish throne,
returned to Italy to gather an army from among the Spoletans and Lombards and
oppose Berengar. This he did, but the battle they fought near Brescia in the fall was a
slight victory for Berengar, though his forces were so diminished that he sued for
peace nevertheless.[20] The truce was to last until 6 January 889.[20]
After the truce with Guy was signed, Arnulf of Germany endeavoured to invade Italy
through Friuli. Berengar, in order to prevent a war, sent dignitaries (leading men)
ahead to meet Arnulf. He himself then had a meeting, sometime between early
November and Christmas, at Trent.[20] He was allowed to keep Italy, as Arnulf's
vassal, but the curtes of Navus and Sagus were taken from him.[21] Arnulf allowed his
army to return to Germany, but he himself celebrated Christmas in Friuli, at Karnberg.
[22]
Early in 889, their truce having expired, Guy defeated Berengar at the Battle of the
Trebbia and made himself sole king in Italy, though Berengar maintained his authority
in Friuli.[23] Represented by his counsellor Walfred at the city of Verona, he remained
master in Friuli, which was always the base of his support. Though Guy had been
supported by Pope Stephen V since before the death of Charles the Fat, he was now
abandoned by the pope, who turned to Arnulf. Arnulf, for his part, remained a staunch
partisan of Berengar and it has even been suggested that he was creating a
Carolingian alliance between himself and Louis of Provence, Charles III of France, and
Berengar against Guy and Rudolph I of Upper Burgundy.[24]
In 893, Arnulf sent his illegitimate son Zwentibold into Italy. He met up with Berengar
and together they cornered Guy at Pavia, but did not press their advantage (it is
believed that Guy bribed them off). In 894, Arnulf and Berengar defeated Guy at
Bergamo and took control of Pavia and Milan. Berengar was with Arnulf's army that
invaded Italy in 896. However, he left the army while it was sojourning in the March of
Tuscany and returned to Lombardy.[25] A rumour spread that Berengar had turned
against the king and had brought Adalbert II of Tuscany with him.[25] The truth or
falsehood of the rumour cannot be ascertained, but Berengar was removed from Friuli
and replaced with Waltfred, a former supporter and "highest counsellor" of Berengar's,
who soon died.[26] The falling out between Berengar and Arnulf, who was crowned
Emperor in Rome by Pope Formosus, has been likened to that between Berengar II
and Otto I more than half a century later.[27]
Arnulf left Italy in the charge of his young son Ratold, who soon crossed Lake Como
to Germany, leaving Italy in the control of Berengar, who made a pact with Lambert,
Guy's son and successor.[28] According to the Gesta Berengarii Imperatoris, the two
kings met at Pavia in October and November and agreed to divide the kingdom,
Berengar receiving the eastern half between the Adda and the Po, "as if by hereditary
right" according to the Annales Fuldenses. Bergamo was to be shared between them.
This was a confirmation of the status quo of 889. It was this partitioning which caused
the later chronicler Liutprand of Cremona to remark that the Italians always suffered
under two monarchs. As surety for the accord, Lambert pledged to marry Gisela,
Berengar's daughter.
The peace did not last long. Berengar advanced on Pavia, but was defeated by
Lambert at Borgo San Donnino and taken prisoner. Nonetheless, Lambert died within
days, on 15 October 898. Days later Berengar had secured Pavia and become sole
ruler.[29] It was during this period that the Magyars made their first attacks on
Western Europe. They invaded Italy first in 899. This first invasion may have been
unprovoked, but some historians have suspected that the Magyars were either called
in by Arnulf, no friend of Berengar's, or by Berengar himself, as allies.[30] Berengar
gathered a large army to meet them and refused their request for an armistice. His
army was surprised and routed near the Brenta River in the eponymous Battle of the
Brenta (24 September 899).[31]
This defeat handicapped Berengar and caused the nobility to question his ability to
protect Italy. As a result, they supported another candidate for the throne, the
aforementioned Louis of Provence, another maternal relative of the Carolingians. In
900, Louis marched into Italy and defeated Berengar; the following year he was
crowned Emperor by Pope Benedict IV. In 902, however, Berengar struck back and
defeated Louis, making him promise never to return to Italy. When he broke this oath
by invading the peninsula again in 905, Berengar defeated him at Verona, captured
him, and ordered him to be blinded on 21 July.[32] Louis returned to Provence and
ruled for another twenty years as Louis the Blind. Berengar thereby cemented his
position as king and ruled undisputed, except for a brief spell, until 922. As king,
Berengar made his seat at Verona, which he heavily fortified.[33] During the years
when Louis posed a threat to Berengar's kingship, his wife, Bertilla, who was a niece
of the former empress Engelberga, Louis's grandmother, played an important part in
the legitimisation of his rule.[4] She later disappeared from the scene, as indicated by
her absence in his charters post-905.
In 904, Bergamo was subjected to a long siege by the Magyars. After the siege,
Berengar granted the bishop of the city walls and the right to rebuild them with the
help of the citizens and the refugees fleeing the Magyars.[34] The bishop attained all
the rights of a count in the city.
Emperor, 915924[edit]
In January 915, Pope John X tried to forge an alliance between Berengar and the
local Italian rulers in hopes that he could face the Saracen threat in southern Italy.
Berengar was unable to send troops, but after the great Battle of the Garigliano, a
victory over the Saracens, John crowned Berengar as Emperor in Rome (December).
[35] Berengar, however, returned swiftly to the north, where Friuli was still threatened
by the Magyars.
As emperor, Berengar was wont to intervene outside of his regnum of Italy. He even
dabbled in an episcopal election in the diocese of Liθge.[36] After the death of the
saintly Bishop Stephen in 920, Herman I, Archbishop of Cologne, representing the
German interests in Lotharingia, tried to impose his choice of the monks of the local
cloister, one Hilduin, on the vacant see. He was opposed by Charles III of France,
who convinced Pope John to excommunicate Hilduin. Another monk, Richer, was
appointed to the see with the support of pope and emperor.
In his latter years, his wife Bertilla was charged with infidelity, a charge not uncommon
against wives of declining kings of that period.[37] She was poisoned.[38] He had
remarried to one named Anna by December 915.[38] It has been suggested, largely for
onomastic reasons, that Anna was a daughter of Louis of Provence and his wife Anna,
the possible daughter of Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine Emperor.[39] In that case, she
would have been betrothed to Berengar while still a child and only become his consors
and imperatrix in 923.[39] Her marriage was an attempt by Louis to advance his
children while he himself was being marginalised and by Berengar to legitimise his rule
by relating himself by marriage to the house of Lothair I which had ruled Italy by
hereditary right since 817.
By 915, Berengar's eldest daughter, Bertha, was abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia,
where her aunt had once been a nun. In that year, the following year, and in 917,
Berengar endowed her monastery with three privileges to build or man fortifications.
[40] His younger daughter, Gisela, had married Adalbert I of Ivrea as early as 898 (and
no later than 910), but this failed to spark an alliance with the Anscarids.[41] She was
dead by 913, when Adalbert remarried.[41] Adalbert was one of Berengar's earliest
internal enemies after the defeat of Louis of Provence. He called on Hugh of Arles
between 917 and 920 to take the Iron Crown.[41] Hugh did invade Italy, with his
brother Boso, and advanced as far as Pavia, where Berengar starved them into
submission, but allowed them to pass out of Italy freely.[42]
Dissatisfied with the emperor, who had ceased his policy of grants and family alliances
in favour of paying Magyar mercenaries, several Italian nobles led by Adalbert and
many of the bishops invited Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy to take the Italian throne
in 921.[43] Moreover, his own grandson, Berengar of Ivrea, rose up against him,
incited by Rudolph. Berengar retreated to Verona and had to watch sidelined as the
Magyars pillaged the country.[44] John, Bishop of Pavia, surrendered his city to
Rudolph in 922 and it was sacked by the Magyars in 924.[45] On 29 July 923, the
forces of Rudolph, Adalbert, and Berengar of Ivrea met those of Berengar and
defeated him in the Battle of Fiorenzuola, near Piacenza.[46] The battle was decisive
and Berengar was de facto dethroned and replaced by Rudolf. Berengar was soon
after murdered at Verona by one of his own men, possibly at Rudolph's instigation. He
left no sons, only a daughter (the aforementioned Bertha) and an anonymous epic
poem, the Gesta Berengarii Imperatoris, about the many happenings of his troublesome
reign.
Berengar has been accused of having "faced [the] difficulties [of his reign] with
particular incompetence,"[47] having "never once won a pitched battle against his
rivals,"[48] and being "not recorded as having ever won a battle" in "forty years of
campaigning."[49] Particularly, he has been seen as alienating public lands and
districtus (defence command) to private holders, especially bishops, though this is
disputed.[50] Some historians have seen his "private defense initiatives" in a more
positive light and have found a coherent policy of gift-giving.[51] Despite this, his role
in inaugurating the incastellamento of the succeeding decades is hardly disputed.[52]
Parents
____ Eberhard (Everard) (ABT 820 - 16 Dec 866)
____ Gisela (ABT 820 - 1 Jul 874)
Siblings
____ Berenger I (ABT 840 - 7 Apr 924)
OF FRIULI Hunroch (Unruoch) III (ABT 840 - 874)
____ Ermenfroi (Ermenfried) (ABT 844 - )
OF FRIULI Judith (ABT 845 - AFT 902)
OF FRIULI Heilwise (ABT 855 - AFT 895)
Marriage To OF SPOLETO Bertila (ABT 850 - Dec 915)
m. ABT 880
Notes
Parents
____ Suppo II (ABT 820 - ABT 885)
----- Bertha (ABT 830 - BEF 921)
Children by OF SPOLETO Bertila ABT 850 - Dec 915
OF FRIULI Gisela (ABT 880 - 13 Jun 910)
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