Biography
He was the son and successor of Peter II of Arborea of the Bas-Serra family and a local woman named Sardinia. He succeeded to the throne at a young age under the regency of William of Capraia, a distant relative. William was the son of Bina de Lacon, widow of Peter I, and Hugh of Capraia, Count of Prato. William and his brothers Anselm and Berthold were pupils at the court of Peter II, who designated William regent for his son.
On William's death in 1264, Marianus did not take the full reins of power, but instead had to recognize the co-dominion of William's son Nicholas. In 1270, he imprisoned Nicholas, and in 1274 had him killed and began to govern himself, though he was soon opposed by Berthold's son Anselm, who held Cagliari.
Marianus was a close ally of the Republic of Pisa, the most powerful force on Sardinia in the mid-thirteenth century, and received Pisan citizenship on 17 June 1265. He often lived in Pisa and there he met his wife, a daughter of Andreotto Saraceno Caldera. In 1287, he married his son John with Giacomina, daughter of Ugolino della Gherardesca, of whom he was a partisan. Marianus was widowed by 1293.
In 1274, he embarked on a series of belligerent adventures to extend his power into Cagliari and Logudoro. He conquered the castle of Monforte on the Nurra and restored it, leaving an epigraph now in the museum of Sassari. In 1277, his conquests were recognised by Pope John XXI. He had annexed part of Montiferru as far as Monte Acuto with all its castles. He thus divided the Logudorese Judicate into a south and north. He was appointed vicar general of Logudoro.
In 1284, Marianus solicited the aid of Peter III of Aragon to retake Cagliari. In 1287, Anselm was defeated and killed.
On 4 January 1295, he made a political about turn and left the third part of Cagliari to Pisa. A little later, he took part with his Gherardeschi in-laws in the siege of Villa di Chiesa, defended by the Guelphs of Donoratico. He was wounded and took refuge in San Leonardo di Siete Fuentes, where, according to some sources, he was poisoned in 1297 by the Pisans who wanted to extend their authority in Cagliari to the Argentiera of Cixerri.
Asides from his son and successor, John, he left a daughter and an illegitimate son named Barisone (died 1305).
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 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.
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.
The Kings or Judges of the Arborea were the local rulers of the west of Sardinia during the Middle Ages. Theirs was the longest-lasting judgedom, surviving as an independent state until the fifteenth century.
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.
Adelasia (1207–1259), was the Judge of Logudoro from 1236 and the titular Judge of Gallura from 1238.
Benedetta was the daughter and heiress of William I of Cagliari and Adelasia, daughter of Moroello Malaspina. She succeeded her father in January or February 1214.
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.
John, nicknamed Chiano, was the Judge of Arborea from 1297 to his death.
Anselm of Capraia was a Pisan count. His political activity extended from the Republic of Pisa to Sardinia.
Nicholas of Capraia was the Judge of Arborea from 1264 to his assassination ten years later.
The Kingdom of Sardinia, also referred to as the Kingdom ofSardinia-Piedmont 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.
The Catalan-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.
