Comita II or III (died 1147) was the giudice (judge) of the Judicate of Arborea from 1131 until his death. He was the son of Constantine I of Arborea, the first ruler of Arborea of the Lacon dynasty. He married Elena de Orrubu, mother of Barison II of Arborea.[1] The dating and chronology of his reign are obscure.
Comita succeeded his father Constantine I. The date of this succession is assumed to be 1131, when he first appears in a communication with the Republic of Genoa. In 1130, Constantine, Gonario II of Torres, and Comita I of Gallura swore fealty to the archbishop of Pisa. In 1133, Pope Innocent II raised Genoa to archiepiscopal status and divided the island of Sardinia between the two sees, giving the north to Genoa and the south to Pisa. In the subsequent wars of that decade, Comita was the sole ally of the Genoese.
From 1133 to 1145, there is a gap in the testimony referring to Comita and it is possible that his brother Torbeno successfully usurped his throne during a war with the Judicate of Logudoro. In 1145, Comita was back in power and was excommunicated by Baldwin, Archbishop of Pisa. The Pisan prelate, travelling the island as a papal legate, had excommunicated the judge for oppressing the people and warring against Pisa. Bernard of Clairvaux even weighed into island politics and sent a letter to Pope Eugene III to justify Baldwin's actions. Nominally Arborea was transferred to Logudoro. Comita died soon after.
The Judicate of Arborea or the Kingdom of Arborea was one of the four independent judicates into which the island of Sardinia was divided in the Middle Ages. It occupied the central-west portion of the island, wedged between Logudoro to the north and east, Cagliari to the south and east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. To the northeast and beyond Logudoro was Gallura, with which Arborea had far less interaction. Arborea outlasted her neighbours, surviving well into the 15th century. At its greatest territorial extent it occupied the entire island except the cities of Alghero and Cagliari. The earliest known judicial seat was Tharros, though Oristano served as capital for most of its existence.
Barison II or Barisone II was the "Judge" of Arborea, one of the four Judicates of Sardinia, from 1146 to 1186. He was the son of Comita II and Elena de Orrubu. His reign was groundbreaking in Sardinian history. It saw the birth of Catalan influence, the escalation of the Genoese-Pisan conflict, and the first royal investiture over the entire island when Barisone was briefly recognised as King of Sardinia by the Holy Roman Emperor from 1164 to 1165.
Barison II or Barisone II was the giudice of the Judicate of Logudoro from 1153 to 1186. He was the son and successor of Gonario II, who abdicated the throne and retired to the monastery of Clairvaux to live out his days.
Comita III was the giudice of Logudoro, with its capital at Torres, from 1198 until 1218. He was the youngest of four sons of Barisone II of Torres and Preziosa de Orrubu. He ruled at a time when the great families, usually foreign, were superseding the giudici in power and influence on Sardinia.
Barison I or Barisone I was the giudicato or "judge" of Arborea from around 1038 until about 1060 and then of Logudoro until his death sometime around 1073. He is the earliest ruler of Logudoro of whom anything is known with certainty. Barisone's policies included opposition to the Republic of Pisa and support of monastic immigration from mainland Italy. His wife was Preziosa de Orrubu.
William I, royal name Salusio IV, was the judike of Cagliari, meaning "King", from 1188 to his death. His descendants and those of his immediate competitors intermarried to form the backbone of the Italian Aristocracy, and ultimately their descendants in the Medici clan are precursors to, and definers of later royalty and claims thereto.
Gonario II was the giudice of the Sardinian kingdom of Logudoro from the death of his father in 1128 until his own abdication in 1154. He was a son of Constantine I and Marcusa de Gunale. He was born between 1113 and 1114 according to later sources and the Camaldolese church of S. Trinità di Saccargia was founded in his name by his parents on 16 December 1112, though it was not consecrated until 5 October 1116.
Comita Spanu was the giudice of Gallura, in Sardinia, from 1133 to 1146. He was the son and successor of Constantine II.
Constantine I was the Judge of Arborea. He was the son of Gonario II and Elena de Orrubu. The dates of his reign are unknown, but he was probably in power at the turn of the 12th century. It was probably dominated by wars between Genoa and Pisa which lasted from 1118 to 1133.
The Judicate of Cagliari was one of the four kingdoms or judicates into which Sardinia was divided during the Middle Ages.
Constantine II, called de Martis, was the giudice of Logudoro. He succeeded to the giudicato sometime between 1181 and 1191. He was the son of Barisone II and Preziosa de Orrubu. His father associated him with the government in 1170 and abdicated the throne to him around 1186. His reign was generally characterised by contemporary chroniclers as "tyrannical."
The Judicate of Gallura was one of four Sardinian judicates in the Middle Ages. These were independent states whose rulers bore the title iudex, judge. Gallura, a name which comes from gallus, meaning rooster (cock), was subdivided into ten curatoriae governed by curatores under the judge. In the 13th century, the arms of Gallura contained a rooster.
Baldwin was a Cistercian monk and later Archbishop of Pisa, a correspondent of Bernard of Clairvaux, and a reformer of the Republic of Pisa. Throughout his episcopate, he greatly expanded the authority of his diocese, making it the most powerful institution in Liguria and Sardinia, and notably increased its landholdings.
Elena was the daughter and successor of Barisone II of Gallura and was named after her mother Odolina of the Lacon family. First queen regnant in Sardinia, she ruled Gallura from the death of her father until her own death, though she was eclipsed by her husband after 1207.
Biagio was the Archbishop of Torres from 1 December 1202 to his death late 1214 or early 1215.
Marianus II was the Judge of Logudoro from 1218 until his death. He was an ally of the Republic of Genoa and enemy of Pisa.
Peter I, of the Serra family, was the eldest son and successor of Barisone II of Arborea, reigning from 1186 to his death. His mother was Barisone's first wife, Pellegrina de Lacon. He was crowned King of Sardinia, the title his father had used, with the support of a majority of the Arborean nobility.
Torchitorio III, born Peter, was the Judge of Cagliari from October 1163 to his deposition and arrest in 1188, after which he was never heard of again.
William of Capraia was the regent for Marianus II of Arborea from 1241 until his death, being entitled "Judge" from 1250 on.
The Kingdom of Sardinia was a feudal state in Southern Europe created in the early 14th century and a possession of the Crown of Aragon first and then of the Spanish Empire until 1708, then of the Habsburgs until 1717, and then of the Spanish Empire again until 1720.
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