Matilda of Tuscany, also referred to as la Gran Contessa, was a member of the House of Canossa in the second half of the eleventh century. Matilda was one of the most important governing figures of the Italian Middle Ages. She reigned in a period of constant battles, political intrigues and Roman Catholic excommunications, and was able to demonstrate an innate and skilled strategic leadership capacity in both military and diplomatic matters.
Charles III was the duke of Parma from 1849 to 1854.
Berengar II was the King of Italy from 950 until his deposition in 961. He was a scion of the Anscarid and Unruoching dynasties, and was named after his maternal grandfather, Berengar I. He succeeded his father as Margrave of Ivrea around 923, and after 940 led the aristocratic opposition to kings Hugh and Lothair II. In 950 he succeeded the latter and had his son, Adalbert crowned as his co-ruler. In 952 he recognised the suzerainty of Otto I of Germany, but he later joined a revolt against him. In 960 he invaded the Papal States, and the next year his kingdom was conquered by Otto. Berengar remained at large until his surrender in 964. He died imprisoned in Germany two years later.
Welf II, or Welfhard, called Welf the Fat (pinguis), was Duke of Bavaria from 1101 until his death. In the Welf genealogy, he is counted as Welf V.
Charles Louis was King of Etruria, Duke of Lucca, and Duke of Parma.
Boniface III, son of Tedald of Canossa and the father of Matilda of Tuscany, was the most powerful north Italian prince of his age. By inheritance he was count of Brescia, Canossa, Ferrara, Florence, Lucca, Mantua, Modena, Pisa, Pistoia, Parma, Reggio, and Verona from 1007 and, by appointment, margrave of Tuscany from 1027 until his assassination in 1052.
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.
Adalbert was the king of Italy from 950 until 961, ruling jointly with his father, Berengar II. After their deposition, Adalbert continued to claim the Italian kingdom until his defeat in battle by the forces of Otto I in 965. Since he was the second Adalbert in his family, the Anscarids, he is sometimes numbered Adalbert II. His name is occasionally, especially in older works, shortened to Albert.
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.
Canossa is a comune and castle town in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077 and stood three days bare-headed in the snow to reverse his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII. The Walk to Canossa is sometimes used as a symbol of the changing relationship between the medieval Church and State.
Adalbert Atto was the first Count of Canossa and founder of that noble house which eventually was to play a determinant role in the political settling of Regnum Italicum and the Investiture Controversy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
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.
Richelida or Richilda was a member of the dynasty known to historians as the Giselbertiners. Her second husband was Boniface III of Tuscany.
The Castle of Canossa is a castle in Canossa, province of Reggio Emilia, northern Italy, especially known for being the location of the Road to Canossa, the meeting of Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy (1077).
Donizo of Canossa, was an Italian monk and author in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. His work is an important source on Matilda of Tuscany and her dynasty, and also on Gregorian Reform and the Investiture Controversy more generally.
Sigifred of Lucca was a Lombard nobleman and the progenitor of the House of Canossa.
Conrad was the margrave of Tuscany from 1119/20 until 1129/31. He was a German, appointed by the Emperor Henry V to bring Tuscany back under imperial control. During the long Investiture Controversy, the Tuscan countess Matilda of Canossa had taken the ecclesiastical side against the emperor and imperial influence in the Tuscan margraviate was at low ebb upon her death in 1115. Conrad was the second in a series of 12th-century German appointees who proved too weak to restore imperial control and whose tenures are associated with the rise of self-government in the Tuscan cities—Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Pisa and Siena.
The term "Terre Matildiche" is used to refer to the group of territories that was ruled by the countess Matilda of Tuscany.
Prangarda of Canossa, was a northern Italian noblewoman.
Adalberto the Margrave, also known as "il Margravio" or "Adalberto III" was an Italian nobleman tied with the Obertenghi family and a well-known ancestor to the Este, Pallavicini and Malaspina family.
