Guy, Margrave of Tuscany

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Guy (also Guido or Wido; raised Leo; called the Philosopher) (died 3 February 929) [1] was the son of Adalbert II of Tuscany with Bertha, daughter of Lothair II of Lotharingia.

After the death of his father Adalbert II in 915, he was the Count and Duke of Lucca and Margrave of Tuscany until his own death in 928 or 929. His mother Bertha was his regent from his father's death until 916.

He kept court at Mantua around the year 920. In 924 or 925, he became the second husband of Marozia, a Roman noblewoman who had the title senatrix patricia Romanorum.

In order to counter the influence of Pope John X (whom the hostile chronicler Liutprand of Cremona alleges was one of Marozia's lovers), Marozia subsequently married his opponent Guy of Tuscany, who loved his beautiful wife as much as he loved power. 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 . Guy died on 3 February 929.

The following popes, Leo VI and Stephen VII, were both her puppets. In 931 she even managed to impose her son as Pontiff, under the name of John XI. John was only twenty-one at the time. [2]

He had one daughter, Theodora (or Bertha), and probably a few other children of which nothing else is known. None of his children survived him and when he died in 928 or 929 his brother Lambert succeeded him as count and duke of Lucca and margrave of Tuscany. Meaning that either this page is incorrect or the page listing "his son" Adalberto the Margrave (died 951, was elevated to the nobiliary title of "Visconte" in 940) is incorrect. [3] [ circular reference ]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lothair II</span> King of Lotharingia

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Adalbert II, called the Rich, son of Adalbert I, Margrave of Tuscany and Rothild of Spoleto. He was a grandson of Boniface II, and was concerned with the troubles of Lombardy, at a time when so many princes were contending for the wreckage of the Carolingian Empire. Before his father died in 884 or 886, he is accredited the title of "count". He inherited from his father the titles of Count and Duke of Lucca and Margrave of Tuscany.

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Lambert was the second son of Adalbert II of Tuscany and Bertha, daughter of Lothair II of Lotharingia. He succeeded his elder brother, Guy, as count and duke of Lucca and margrave of Tuscany on his death in 938 or 939 without heirs. In 931, before 17 October, Hugh, King of Italy, disowned and removed Lambert, giving Tuscany and the familial possession of Lucca to his brother Boso. Hugh was Guy and Lambert's half-brother, as they had the same mother. When Guy died, Hugh married Guy's widow, Marozia.

Boso was a Burgundian nobleman who spent much of his career in Italy, where he became Margrave of Tuscany about 932. He ruled semi-autonomously and was a benefactor of the churches of his region. He lost his office in 936 and probably returned to Burgundy.

Adalbert I was the margrave of Ivrea, the second of the Anscarid dynasty, from the late 890s until his death. In the intermittent civil war which affected Italy from 888 into the 930s, Adalbert initially strove to remain neutral, but from 901 on he sided sequentially with every claimant to the Italian throne.

Bertha was countess of Arles by marriage to Theobald of Arles, and margravine of Tuscany by marriage to Adalbert II of Tuscany. She served as regent of Lucca and Tuscany from 915 until 916 during the minority of her son Guy of Tuscany. She was described as beautiful, spirited and courageous, while her influence over her spouse was, coupled with ambition, attributed to have involved her husbands in many wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March of Tuscany</span> Medieval borderland

The March of Tuscany was a march of the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages. Located in northwestern central Italy, it bordered the Papal States to the south, the Ligurian Sea to the west and Lombardy to the north. It comprised a collection of counties, largely in the valley of the River Arno, originally centered on Lucca.

Anscar was a magnate in the Kingdom of Italy who served as Count of Pavia, Margrave of Ivrea (929–36) and Duke of Spoleto (936–40). He is sometimes numbered "Anscar II" to distinguish him from his grandfather, Anscar I of Ivrea. Described by Liutprand of Cremona as courageous and impulsive, he died in the battle of Spoleto.

Waldrada was the mistress, and later the wife, of Lothair II of Lotharingia.

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References

  1. Townsend, Geo (1847) Ecclesiastical and Civil History Philosophically Considered, Vol. II, p. 157
  2. Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. IV: The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy, 891-999 (1910). pp.163-164.
  3. Adalberto the Margrave
Preceded by Margrave of Tuscany
915–929
Succeeded by