Archaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlement on the island of Sardinia is present in the form of nuraghes and other prehistoric monuments, which dot the land. The recorded history of Sardinia begins with its contacts with the various people who sought to dominate western Mediterranean trade in classical antiquity: Phoenicians, Punics and Romans. Initially under the political and economic alliance with the Phoenician cities, it was partly conquered by Carthage in the late 6th century BC and then entirely by Rome after the First Punic War. The island was included for centuries in the Roman province of Sardinia and Corsica, which would be incorporated into the diocese of Italia suburbicaria in 3rd and 7th centuries.
Oristano ) is an Italian city and comune (municipality), the capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the provincial capital on 16 July 1974. As of December 2017, the city had 31,671 inhabitants.
Eleanor of Arborea or Eleanor De Serra Bas was one of the most powerful and important, and one of the last, judges of the Judicate of Arborea in Sardinia, and Sardinia's most famous heroine. She is also known for updating of the Carta de Logu, promulgated by her father Marianus IV and revisited by her brother Hugh III.
The Judicates, in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. They were sovereign states with summa potestas, each with a ruler called judge, with the powers of a king.
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 II or III 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. The dating and chronology of his reign are obscure.
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.
The Judicate of Cagliari was one of the four kingdoms or judicates into which Sardinia was divided during the Middle Ages.
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.
Marianus IV, called the Great, was the Judge (king) of Arborea, kingdom in the island of Sardinia, from 1347 to his death. He was, as his nickname indicates, the greatest sovereign of Arborea. He was a legislator and a warrior whose reign saw the commencement of massive codification of the laws of his realm and incessant warfare with the Crown of Aragon. He was also a religious man, who had connections to Catherine of Siena. He was, in short, an "wise legislator, able politician, and valiant warrior."
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.
Marianus II was the Judge of Arborea from 1241 to his death. With skilled military action, he came to control more than half of the island of Sardinia. By his control of the vast central plains and the rich deposits of precious metals, he increased the riches of his Judicate and staved off the general economic decline affecting the rest of Europe at the time.
Orzocorre I was the Judge of Arborea from circa 1070 to circa 1100 and is the first ruler of Arborea about whom anything substantial is known. He was the founder of an Arborean dynasty which reigned until 1185. He succeeded Marianus I, about whose government nothing is known, though some presume that Orzocorre was his son. If true, this would make Orzocorre a member of the Thori family.
The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom ofSardinia-Piedmont, Sardegna and Corsica or Piedmont–Sardinia as a composite state during the Savoyard period, was a country in Southern Europe from the late 13th until the mid-19th century; officially 1297 to 1768 for the Corsican part of this kingdom.
The Aragonese conquest of Sardinia took place between 1323 and 1326. The island of Sardinia was at the time subject to the influence of the Republic of Pisa, the Pisan della Gherardesca family, Genoa and of the Genoese families of Doria and the Malaspina; the only native political entity survived was the Judicate of Arborea, allied with the Crown of Aragon. The financial difficulties due to the wars in Sicily, the conflict with the Crown of Castile in the land of Murcia and Alicante (1296–1304) and the failed attempt to conquer Almeria (1309) explain the delay of James II of Aragon in bringing the conquest of Sardinia, enfeoffed to him by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297.
The Sardinian–Aragonese war was a late medieval conflict lasting from 1353 to 1420. The fight was over supremacy of the land and took place between the Judicate of Arborea -- allied with the Sardinian branch of the Doria family and Genoa -- and the Kingdom of Sardinia, the latter of which had been part of the Crown of Aragon since 1324.
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.
