Originally part of the March of Western Liguria (Marca Liguriae Occidentalis) established by King Berengar II about 950, the area of Montferrat was constituted as the marca Aleramica ("Aleramic march") for his son-in-law Aleramo. The earliest secure documentation of Aleramo and his immediate family is derived from the founding charter of the Abbey of Grazzano in 961, occasioned by the recent death of Aleramo's son Gugliemo.
After King Otto I of Germany invaded Italy in 961 and displaced Berengar II, he continued, in a manner much like his predecessors Berengar and Hugh of Arles, to redefine the great fiefs of Italy. He continued the work that had been done to organize the northwest into three great marches. In the March of Aleramici (Western Liguria) Otto confirmed Aleramo's titles and position (961); in the March of Genoa (Eastern Liguria) or the marca Januensis Otto returned Oberto I to his lands, with the title of count palatine (961); and in the March of Turin Otto appointed Arduin Glaber margrave (964).
Aleram's descendants were relatively obscure until the time of Marquess Rainier in the early twelfth century. About 1133 Rainier's son Marquess William V married Judith of Babenberg, a half-sister of King Conrad III of Germany, and so greatly increased his family's prestige. He entered into the Italian policies of Conrad and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, setting a Ghibelline precedent for his successors, and with his sons became involved in the Crusades.
Marquess Boniface I was the leader of the Fourth Crusade and established the Kingdom of Thessalonica in the Latin Empire of Greece. Reuniting Thessalonica, inherited by Boniface's Greek son Demetrius, with Montferrat became a goal of Boniface's Italian heirs, though nothing ever came of their endeavours.
In the thirteenth century, Montferrat waffled between the Guelph and Ghibelline parties under Boniface II and William VII. It had to wage several long wars against the independence-minded communes of Asti and Alessandria and it became the standard-bearers of a renewed Lombard League forged to fight the spread of Angevin influence into northern Italy. The capital of Montferrat at this time was Chivasso, the centre of the margraves' power.
In 1305, the last Aleramici margrave died and Montferrat was inherited by the Greek imperial Palaiologos dynasty, who held it until 1533, during a period of diminishing territoriality. In that year, Montferrat was seized by the Spanish under Emperor Charles V of Habsburg, who restored it to Federico II, Duke of Mantua from the House of Gonzaga in 1536. His son Margrave William X was elevated to a Duke of Montferrat in 1574 and the "march" ceased to exist as an entity, though it had already undergone the significant change from a feudal collection of frontier counties to one of the petty states of Renaissance Italy, divided into two separated territories.
Boniface I, usually known as Boniface of Montferrat, was the ninth Marquis of Montferrat, a leader of the Fourth Crusade (1201–04) and the king of Thessalonica.
The Kingdom of Thessalonica was a short-lived Crusader State founded after the Fourth Crusade over conquered Byzantine lands in Macedonia and Thessaly.
Montferrat is a historical region of Piedmont in Northern Italy. It comprises roughly the modern provinces of Alessandria and Asti. Montferrat is one of the most important wine districts of Italy. It also has a strong literary tradition, including the 18th century Asti-born poet and dramatist Vittorio Alfieri and the Alessandrian Umberto Eco.
Aleram was the first Marquis of Montferrat and Liguria in Northern Italy until his death. He was son of William I of Montferrat and is mentioned in documents for the first time in 933 when he received a fief near Vercelli by Hugh of Italy. In 955 he was invested of lands in what is now the province of Alessandria.
Judith, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Marchioness of Montferrat from 1135 until her death, by her marriage with Marquess William V.
Boniface is a given name and a surname. The best known of those who bear the name is Saint Boniface, an important leader in early Christianity and the "Apostle of the Germans". Others named Boniface include:
Oberto I Obizzo was an Italian count palatine and margrave and the oldest known member of the Obertenghi family.
Henry del Vasto, died before 1141 was a son of Manfred del Vasto, margrave of Western Liguria, and brother of Adelaide, countess of Sicily (1089–1117) and Jerusalem (1112–1117) and of Boniface, margrave of Savona and Western Liguria.
The March of Ivrea was a large frontier county (march) in the northwest of the medieval Italian kingdom from the late 9th to the early 11th century. Its capital was Ivrea in present-day Piedmont, and it was held by a Burgundian family of margraves called the Anscarids. The march was the primary frontier between Italy and Upper Burgundy and served as a defense against any interference from that state.
Guy or Guido Pallavicini, called Marchesopoulo by his Greek subjects, was the first marquess of Bodonitsa in Frankish Greece from 1204 to his death in or shortly after 1237. He was one of the most important Frankish rulers in Greece, and played a major role in the short-lived Kingdom of Thessalonica: in 1208–1209 he supported the Lombard rebellion against King Demetrius of Montferrat, but by 1221 he was the kingdom's regent (bailli), and was left to defend the city against the ruler of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas. Left unsupported by the Latin Empire, and with a projected crusade to relieve the city delayed, he surrendered the city in December 1224. The belated arrival of the crusade helped to save his own fief from falling to the Epirotes, however, and he was soon able to return there, dying on or shortly after 1237.
The House of Obertenghi were a prominent Italian noble family of Frankish origin descended from Viscount Adalbert III, first Margrave of Milan.
William VI was the tenth Marquis of Montferrat from 1203 and titular King of Thessalonica from 1207.
The Aleramici were a Northern Italian noble and royal dynasty of Frankish origin which ruled various northwestern Italian territories in Piedmont and Liguria from the 10th to the 14th century, also reigning over the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Thessalonica during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Boniface II, called the Giant, was the eleventh Marquis of Montferrat from 1225 until his death. He became the titular King of Thessalonica in 1239.
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 Arno River, originally centered on Lucca.
The March of Verona and Aquileia was a vast march of the Holy Roman Empire in the northeastern Italian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, centered on the cities of Verona and Aquileia. Seized by King Otto I of Germany in 952, it was held by the Dukes of Bavaria; from 976 in personal union with the Duchy of Carinthia. The margravial regime ended with the advent of the Lombard League in 1167.
Maria of Serbia or Marija Branković was Princess of Serbia by birth, and Marchioness of Montferrat by marriage. She was regent of Montferrat during the minority of her son in 1494-1495.
The Marquisate of Finale was an Italian state in what is now Liguria, part of the former medieval Aleramici March. It was ruled for some six centuries by the Aleramici branch known as marquesses del Vasto and later Del Carretto, when Savona became a free commune. In 1598 the Marquisate was sold by its last marquis, Sforza Andrea to Philip II of Spain and in 1713 it was finally ceded to the Republic of Genoa, where it remained so until 1797, when it was invaded by Napoleon, ceasing its existence.
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